Why Americans don't want to move for jobs anymore

https://www.npr.org/2025/10/03/nx-s1-5561049/why-americans-dont-want-to-move-for-jobs-anymore

4•raw_anon_1111•2h ago

Comments

jzb•2h ago

I'm not sure Americans wanted to move for jobs so much as we were resigned to the idea. If you wanted to work in specific industries, you had to go where those jobs were -- which is still true if your job depends on being in a specific location, but less true for a great many jobs that are knowledge work that can be done from anywhere.

I had a good friend in college who never utilized her degree because she was not willing to move out of St. Louis. She wanted to be close to her family more than she wanted to get a job that made use of her degree. Today, she might've been able to find a job that better used her skills and still got to be around for her niece to grow up.

The choice of "family or job" sucks. It's always sucked. (Well, unless you're looking to get away from your family...) Now people have more options.

JohnFen•2h ago

Exactly this. Moving for a job is rarely something people actually want to do, it's a price people were willing to pay.

raw_anon_1111•2h ago

I was born and raised in small town south GA where I also went to college. Most of my class couldn’t wait to move after graduating from high school or college. It’s the same with people who I know from Mississippi and Alabama.

I can’t say I know anyone who left a small town in the south who pine to go back even if there were jobs.

JohnFen•1h ago

True, but my perspective is that these people aren't wanting to move for a job, they're wanting to move for other reasons and a job elsewhere is a means by which they can accomplish that.

Also, there are certainly people who actually want to move for a job itself. I'm just asserting that they're a very small minority.

raw_anon_1111•1h ago

But to be fair…

“Unambitious Loser With Happy, Fulfilling Life Still Lives In Hometown”

https://theonion.com/unambitious-loser-with-happy-fulfilling...

Read the article, it’s a condemnation of people who think the guy is “a loser”. It’s not an insult to people who decide to stay in small towns.

jzb•4m ago

Sure, but the motivation was "I want to get out of this place." A job just helped to facilitate that. I mean, I was in that boat too -- though I moved for college, not a job -- and never seriously considered going back. I would've loved to have stayed where I was after college, but there were no great jobs there, so I moved for a job -- but that meant parting with my then-girlfriend and other friends.

billy99k•2h ago

Why would I pick up my family and move without a guarantee on the other side that I will have a job for X amount of years. It's too much of a risk and too much stress for everyone involved.

raw_anon_1111•1h ago

The alternative is staying where you know there aren’t any jobs. I didn’t move from small town south GA because I knew I wanted to stay at my job as computer operator making $11/hour in 1996 in Atlanta. I moved because I knew there were better opportunities to get another job when I wanted.

I have never in 30 years had the mindset that I need my current job to get ahead. I needed a job. I’m now on my tenth. 7 of them were in Atlanta until 2020 and the last three were remote and we moved from Atlanta to state tax free Florida after COVID.

shortrounddev2•1h ago

especially since moving for work usually means moving to somewhere more expensive. If I live in a lower COL city and get laid off, my savings would carry me a lot further. If I move to San Francisco or New York for a job and get laid off, I'd have to find a new one immediately

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