Need You to Move for Lower Pay - Why 3 Million Open Jobs In America Can't Be Filled...

This just in - there are over 3 million open jobs in America, but the right talent isn't in the right place.  In order to plug people into those roles, retraining is probably needed, and then (and this is the big kicker), the talent has to be mobile to go where the jobs are.

It's a mess, and odds are the skills/location gap (and you can't say one without the other) is going to get  worse once the economy cranks back up.  Bet on that...

More on the recession-based labor market that could create such a situation from BusinessWeek:

"Surprising statistic: In the midst of the worst recession in a generation or more, with 13 million people unemployed, there are approximately 3 million jobs that employers are actively recruiting for but so far have been unable to fill. That's more job openings than the entire population of Mississippi.

Sound like good news? It's not. Instead, it's evidence of an emerging structural shift in the U.S. economy that has created serious mismatches between workers and employers. People thrown out of shrinking sectors such as construction, finance, and retail lack the skills and training for openings in growing fields including education, accounting, health care, and government. At the same time, the worst housing bust in decades has left the unemployed frozen in place. They can't move to get work because they can't sell their homes."

Of course, you and I have heard about the skills gap for some time.  That part, we get.  Production workers need to be retrained, right?  The big eye-opener for me in the BW report is the impact that reduced mobility is having on the workforce and the country's inability to fill those 3 million open jobs. Take a taste of this from the BW report:

"One reason the jobs misery index is so high: The housing bust has reduced Americans' mobility. The Census Bureau reported on Apr. 22 that the percentage of the population that moved was the lowest since record keeping began in 1948. Home-owners, the Census found, were only one-fifth as likely to move as renters. The upshot is pockets of persistently severe unemployment—coincident with places such as North Dakota, where the 4.2% jobless rate is the nation's lowest. Sykes Enterprises (SYKE) plans to close a 200-person call center in Minot, N.D., on May 10 for lack of workers, and fast-food restaurants there are putting workers on overtime to cover shifts.

Immobility is sometimes a matter of choice. Dean Drako, the CEO of security and network appliance company Barracuda Networks, has been hunting for months for a vice-president of worldwide sales, as well as other key positions. Out of desperation he gave up a Friday night with his family in April to attend a mixer heavy on Ivy Leaguers at San Francisco's tony University Club, certain he could poach some talent there. When Drako handed his card to a potential recruit who had been out of work for six months, the person looked at the company's Campbell (Calif.) address and sniffed: "Oh, forget it, you're geographically undesirable." Says Drako: "He practically handed my business card back to me!"

Even some people from hard-hit cities such as Detroit and Cleveland have passed up well-paying jobs with medical device companies in places like North Carolina because they don't want to move, says Lisa Mesnard, an executive recruiter with the Wellington Group in Fuquay-Varina, N.C. "I find it daily," she says. "They're ingrained in the community. [Although] they don't have a job, they're willing to wait it out."

Here's another harsh reality of the skills/location gap.  There are jobs available, but folks need retraining.  Even if they get retrained, they need to be mobile to take advantage of where the job is.  But often times, the retraining means they need to take a step back in their careers to take two steps forward.  That means that a lot of professionals will be asked to move in order to take a job for less money than they're used to making.

Retraining means you usually drop down a couple of rungs on the ladder to learn a new skill, functional area and/or industry.  When you add a physical move into the equation with LESS money, it's more than the ego of most professionals can bare.

That stipend of human nature - the ego - is why the skills/location gap will be around for a long time and why the coming economic recovery will only make it worse.

Closing point - retraining = less $$$, so people generally won't move for less $$$

Comments

[Chris]

Those Census numbers on moving are pretty unimportant. In the last 5 years, only 2-3% of the population over the age of 24 move to a new state in a given year. Most of the movers (approximately 60%) don't even move to a new county!

People have been, in general, unwilling to move long distances. Even in the 2001 recession, people didn't increase their mobility (as one might expect when jobs are scarce but housing prices stable).

You can see the numbers here:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/migrate.html

That said, I still think your psychological argument about retraining and taking a step down makes sense.

[Mir]

Bring more smart H1B bisa workers from India.
File for tax exemption.
Do more outsourcing.
Lower cost by moving operation to India and China.
Become a part of the organization.

[Employee]

And what percentage of those employers are paying relo costs? I'd bet less than 5%.

It's OK if businesses refuse to take on clients or projects when there's slim to no profit in it....Yet job-seekers are looked upon as picky slackers when they do the same.

After being uprooted 4 times to follow the work, my family has now drawn the line: The next move is back home, closer to family, for the same money. Otherwise, we're staying put and will downsize and adapt as needed if we lose our jobs again.