Economic times are tough for both employers and employees. The days of getting a job close to home may be not be a realistic expectation in the current job market. Increasing numbers of businesses are offering employees the opportunity to relocate and employees are gladly relocating.
A study was conducted online by Harris Interactive© on behalf of CareerBuilder. It consisted of 3,023 hiring managers and human resource professionals and 7,780 U.S. workers. The participants were employed full-time, not self-employed and not a government employees.
The results of the survey showed that based on workers who were laid off in the last year and found new jobs, 20 percent had relocated to a new city or state. On the other side of the table employers are struggling to find workers for skilled positions and are now paying for talent to move to other locations. Thirty-two percent said they would pay to relocate a new employee. Out of the employers surveyed 19% said they would pay a smaller first year salary so the employee could get a signing bonus and be able to relocate.
Seventy seven percent of the workers who relocated last year responded that they were happy with their move and didn’t regret it. Some of the benefits associated with relocating were, 30 % felt they had made a fresh start and 31 % reported they had made new friends. Twenty nine percent felt they had experienced things they might not anywhere else and 27% claimed they were earning at a higher level which gave their family more spending options.
Many employers will move staff and new hires from different types of positions. It appears the careers most likely to be offered relocation are those in the technology and revenue generation positions. Most employers were likely to relocate people in the Engineering field at 30%, Information Technology 23%, Business Development 21% and sales at 21%.
Matt Ferguson is CEO of CareerBuilder and in a January 18, 2012 Press Release he commented about the survey saying “Workers have had to expand their job search geographically and employers in need of hard-to-find, skilled talent have had to recruit across state lines.”
Source
Press Release
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nearly-one-third-of-employers-willing-to-pay-to-relocate-employees-in-2012-careerbuilder-survey-finds-137554318.html
CareerBuilder
http://www.careerbuilder.com
Harris Interactive
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/