New Hire Relocation Volume Hits New Low

by Ryan Carrell

Economic times are tough and the relocation industry is anything but immune. Challenger, Gray and Christmas, an employment services company, produces a quarterly report that tracks the percentage of job seekers that are relocating for employment. The third quarter of 2010 entry was just 6.9%, the lowest since they started producing the report in 1986. To lend some perspective, this same index showed an average of nearly 42% in calendar year 1986 and was over 20% within the last decade. Unfortunately, the third quarter just caps a decade long decline in the index and an average for the last four quarters of 7.3%. You can view some commentary regarding the history and current state of the index by clicking here.

There are a number of positive reason this trend in the decline of new hire relocations has continued including technology advances, increases in efficiency and soci-economic changes within the US workforce. However, the negatives circumstance of potential employees who fear they cannot replace a trailing spouse’s income or those that are simply too far upside to afford to sell their current home are certainly prevalent. For the non-relocation industry professional, this is a glass half-full scenario. Lack of willingness or ability for new hires to relocate means increased local employment opportunities as the recovery continues. But as Challenger CEO, John Challenger points out in his post “the job market is expected to continue to improve in 2011. If it improves faster than the housing market, the inability of job seekers to relocate will become a major obstacle to sustained job creation.”

Frankly, after being in the relocation industry for nearly 20 years (Oh my…where did the time go?) I was surprised by the length and magnitude of the decline in this index. If you have any thoughts on the topic I’d love to hear them…

Posted by: Ryan Carrell