Employees Declining Relocation

Impact of Housing/Mortgage Continues To Fall,
Spouse/Partner Employment Remains High

Housing/mortgage concerns as a reason for declining relocation has fallen the last four years. It is now within pre-recession levels for the second time since 2007—and for the first time across company size. In general, mid-size and large firms continue to be more affected than small firms (31% & 28% vs. 18%). For the fourth straight year, family issues/ties takes the top spot among firms of all sizes. Spouse/partner employment continues to hold second place for the fourth year in a row and remains near the highest levels recorded since the turn of the century. The Great Recession made it difficult for many families to maintain dual-income status; it appears employees remain mindful of the risk relocation can pose to their household’s earnings. The impact of this factor had fallen to 39% in 2011, likely due to the difficulty of simply obtaining employment; it retains an eighteen percent gain over this low (57%).

Nearly two-thirds of firms saw employees decline relocation last year, which is not unexpected, but at the high end historically. While increased employee reluctance (20%) remains slightly below the peaks of 2008 (28%), 2009 (29%), and 2014 (28%), it remains above typical post-recession levels (11%-18%) of recent years. This suggests firms trying to motivate employees to relocate are feeling continued pressure from such factors as family issues/ties and spousal/partner employment. However, while increased reluctance remains at higher levels, a bit more firms also report decreases in employee reluctance over the past three years compared to many previous years, although at somewhat lower levels compared to the increases.

Far more small firms (55% vs. a third on average, historically) saw employees decline relocation last year, similar to 2015 (48%) and increased reluctance actually rose above recessionary levels for small firms (25% vs. 15%-19%). Reluctance at mid-size firms fell compared to the previous two years (21% vs. 30%) but remains within recessionary ranges (20%-30%) over the past three years. However, reluctance among large firms falls again, far lower than recessionary levels (12% vs. 40%+) to well within post-recession recovery ranges (7%-21%).
More than half of firms of all sizes cite spouse/partner employment as a reason employees declined relocation last year, near the highest levels seen since 2002.

Question 8

Companies that had employees decline the opportunity to relocate in 2016