Posted by Brian McCullough
This is something I’ve been worried about for some time now.
We all know that the collective declines in the value of our homes has hurt our pocketbook.
But the resulting immobility of the workforce – the fact that we can’t just pick up and move to a better job because we can’t sell the house we’re in now – is hurting the overall job market.
The rapid decline in housing prices is distorting the normal workings of the American labor market. Mobility opens up job opportunities, allowing workers to go where they are most needed. When housing is not an obstacle, more than five million men and women, nearly 4 percent of the nation’s work force, move annually from one place to another — to a new job after a layoff, or to higher-paying work, or to the next rung in a career, often the goal of a corporate transfer. {…} Now that mobility is increasingly restricted. Unable to sell their homes easily and move on, tens of thousands of people like Mr. Kirkland and Dr. Morgan are making the labor force less flexible just as a weakening economy puts pressure on workers to move to wherever companies are still hiring.
Read the whole article for a comprehensive description of the problem.
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