RESEARCH REPORT MAY 2018 Metro Movers: Where Are … · 41 percent female, with an average age of...
Transcript of RESEARCH REPORT MAY 2018 Metro Movers: Where Are … · 41 percent female, with an average age of...
RESEARCH REPORT | MAY 2018
Metro Movers: Where Are Americans Moving for Jobs, And Is It Worth It?
Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D., Chief Economist, Glassdoor
3 Introduction
4 Who Are America’s Metro Movers
22 Which Job Factors Most Attract Metro Movers
25 Conclusion
Executive Summary
• Moving for a job is a big decision. Where are job seekers in the United
States applying to jobs in 2018? And what makes them more likely to move
to a new city?
• This study uses a large sample of more than 668,000 online job applications
during a typical week on Glassdoor to illustrate real-time trends in work-
related migration among the 40 biggest metros in the U.S.
• While the typical job seeker on Glassdoor is highly selective and applies
to 5.2 jobs per week on average, that varies widely, with many power users
applying to 20 or more jobs per week.
• On average, 28.5 percent of started job applications are to a new metro area.
Which factors statistically drive “metro movers” — job seekers located in
one metro, but start a job application in another metro — to apply to jobs
and companies elsewhere?
• Salary drives candidates to move. But the effect is small. An extra $10,000
higher base salary predicts candidates are about a half percentage point
(0.41 percentage points) more likely to be a metro mover — a statistically
significant, but small effect.
• Better company culture is more attractive. Having a 1-star higher overall
Glassdoor rating predicts candidates will be 2.5 percentage points more
likely to move metros for a job. That’s statistically significant, and roughly
six times larger than the impact of offering $10,000 higher pay.
• Younger workers are more likely to move. Adding roughly ten years to
an applicant’s age predicts they’ll be 7 percentage points less likely to be
a metro mover. For employers who want to hire experienced candidates
from other metros, recruiters may need to compensate with salary
premiums or excellent workplace culture.
• Men are more likely to move metros. Even after controlling for job titles,
education and age, men are 3.3 percentage points more likely to apply to
jobs in another metro. Employers looking to attract women need to make
a conscious outreach effort — particularly for tech and engineering
roles, which have many metro movers.
• Movers are more educated. Workers with a master’s degree are about
4.9 percentage points more likely to be willing to move metros for a job. By
contrast, those with a two-year associate’s degree are least likely to move
metros for a job.
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
I. Introduction
Moving for a job is an important life decision that,
for many, can open up new doors and opportunities.
According to a 2016 survey by consultancy Kelton
Global, 77 percent of Americans say they’re willing to
relocate for jobs, while 86 percent of Millennials say
they’re willing to move for work.1 Among those who
do move, jobs are a key driver. According to the Census
Bureau, 18.5 percent of Americans who moved in
2017 did so for job-related reasons — the third most
common factor, after housing reasons and changing
family situations.2
Where are Americans moving to for jobs in 2018? What
kinds of applicants are most likely to relocate between
cities? And why are they moving for jobs — higher pay,
better workplace culture or some other reason?
While government surveys reveal patterns in where
Americans are moving for work, the results often lag
years behind — making it hard to track real-time patterns
in today’s rapidly evolving workforce. Plus, Census
surveys only show movers’ final destination. They don’t
tell us anything about the top cities Americans are
seriously considering when making critical decisions to
move for jobs.
Glassdoor has a unique window into real-time job search
patterns in America today, including the factors that are
most enticing Americans to pick up and move. This is
because Glassdoor is one of the world’s largest jobs and
recruiting sites, with rich data on the job search process
and nearly 40 million reviews and insights on all aspects
of the workplace at companies around the world. In this
study, we use a large sample of more than 668,000 online
job applications started on Glassdoor during a typical
week in January 2018 to illustrate trends in job-related
migration among the 40 largest metro areas in the U.S.
The rest of this study is organized as follows: In Section
II, we present several facts about metro movers, or
Americans who are located in one metro, but start job
applications in another metro, on Glassdoor, including top
city destinations, top companies applicants are willing to
move for and the most and least mobile job seekers. In
Section III, we estimate a simple statistical model to show
which factors best predict candidates will move for jobs:
salary, company ratings, or demographic characteristics
of candidates themselves. In Section IV, we conclude and
summarize lessons for employers aiming to attract metro
movers to their open positions.
1. “Career Trends Report,” (2016), Question #20. Cornerstone OnDemand. Available online at https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/sites/default/files/whitepaper/csod-wp-career-trends-report.pdf.
2. “Declining Mover Rate Driven by Renters, Census Bureau Reports,” (November 15, 2017), U.S. Census Bureau news release. Available online at https://www.census.gov/news-room/press-releases/2017/mover-rates.html.
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
II. Who Are America’s Metro Movers?
Who are the people that will move for a job? What characteristics about metro movers on
Glassdoor make them more likely to move than their counterparts within the U.S. workforce?
In this section, we explain who these candidates are, how they search for jobs on Glassdoor, and
provide a data-driven profile of America’s most geographically mobile job seekers today.
Let’s have a look at the online labor market we observe at Glassdoor, and the trends we see
within job-related migration in 2018.
About the Data
The data used in this study are from online job
applications on Glassdoor. We use a large sample of job
applications started by Glassdoor users during a typical
week from January 8, 2018 through January 14, 2018.
The sample consists of 668,146 started job applications
from 128,221 unique users who applied to jobs using a
desktop computer in any of the 40 largest U.S. metros by
population. Overall, the sample is 59 percent male and
41 percent female, with an average age of 34.7 years.
Using anonymized location information, we recorded
the metro location of each job seeker, as well as the lo-
cation of each job they applied to, allowing us to identify
“metro movers” who are aiming to relocate for work. In
our sample, 477,848 applications were within the same
metro while 190,298 were to different metros.
To estimate salary for each job applied to, we applied
Glassdoor’s proprietary salary estimates model to each
job listing, which estimates median base pay. In addi-
tion, we linked each job posting to the overall Glassdoor
rating for the hiring employer, allowing us to quantify
the workplace culture for each job applied to. Finally,
we collected basic demographic information about job
seekers such as gender, age and education to provide a
well-rounded profile of which Americans are moving for
jobs today and why.
In this study, all personal information was statistically
anonymized — no personally identifying information of
any kind was used in this research.
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
Why Metros?
At Glassdoor, our metro areas are based on “core based
statistical areas” or CBSAs. They are defined as a large
city with at least 10,000 in population, plus all nearby
areas that are socially and economically linked, as
defined by commute-to-work patterns.*
When job seekers leave a metro area, they are leaving
a well-defined economic region — not just crossing over
into a nearby town. Because metros include large cities
and all nearby areas where people commonly commute
to, those moving between metros for jobs are making
a major life change — something we wanted to quantify
in this study.
By looking only at metro movers — rather than those
applying to jobs across city, county or state lines —
we’re focused on job seekers trying to migrate for jobs
between two economically different areas. Our goal is
to measure economically meaningful job moves, which
metro areas do a good job of capturing.
* Core based statistical areas are defined by the
U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and
are widely used by the Census Bureau and other
statistical agencies. More information is available at
https://www.census.gov/geo/reference/gtc/gtc_cbsa.html.
A. Glassdoor’s Window Into the Job Market
With each passing year, the online labor market more
closely resembles the actual U.S. labor market. According
to a 2015 study from the Pew Research Center, 79
percent of Americans who are looking for jobs do so
online. Among those who job search online, 28 percent
use a smartphone, with half of them applying to at least
one job from their mobile device.3 Just as shopping,
social networking, dating and other parts of daily life have
moved online in recent years, the gap between real-world
and online job search behavior is rapidly vanishing.
That makes information from today’s online job platforms
more valuable than ever for understanding the U.S. labor
market. Glassdoor alone represents a significant share of
online job search activity in America, with more than
5 million U.S. job postings being matched up with 57
million unique visitors per month4 — a significant share
of America’s roughly 160 million person labor force. By
observing real-time job search and application behavior,
data from Glassdoor offer a unique window into what’s
happening today in the nation’s fast-changing labor market.
For this study, we compiled a large sample of online job
applications started on Glassdoor during a typical week
in January 2018 — a period after the holiday season when
many Americans are back at work and putting New Year’s
resolutions into practice by looking for new jobs online.
In total, our sample includes 668,146 online job
applications started on Glassdoor. What do we mean
by “started”? When users search for jobs on Glassdoor,
they’re shown an “apply now” button for each job posting
they view (see Figure 1). A job application is started
anytime a user clicks that button and begins the
application process. Those data are the basis for the
analysis in this study.
3. “Searching for Work in the Digital Era,” (November 19, 2015) by Aaron Smith. Pew Research Center report. Available online at http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/11/19/search-ing-for-work-in-the-digital-era/.
4. Source: Glassdoor internal statistics, March 2018.
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
How Americans Look for Jobs Online
How often do Americans apply to jobs online? Figure 2
shows the distribution of job applications started per
week among job candidates in our sample. On average,
candidates apply to 5.2 jobs per week. However, the
distribution is highly uneven. Most candidates apply
to just one or two jobs per week. Although job seekers
click on many job listings, they’re highly selective about
which roles they actually apply to after reading reviews,
browsing salaries, and comparing job listings. Our
data show there are also a small number of Glassdoor
“power users”, or job seekers who applied to 20 or
more jobs per week in our sample. These are the
most active job seekers today.
Figure 2. Most Candidates on Glassdoor Are Highly Selective and Apply to Five or Fewer Jobs Per Week
Figure 1. Starting an Online Job Application on Glassdoor
It’s important to note that we don’t know the final result
of whether the job applicants we’ve identified actually
moved to a new job. However, started job applications
data show us economic intent to move, which unlike job
clicks, are a much more credible signal and are less noisy
than simply counting how many times an online job has
been viewed or “clicked” on. Applications are costly to
job seekers in terms of time and effort. Those who take
the extra step of applying are typically more serious
about moving for jobs than those simply browsing job
listings online. Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (glassdoor.com/research/)
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (glassdoor.com/research/)
Job Applications Per Week
Average = 5.2 job applications per week
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
When it comes to where Americans apply to jobs, our
data show most stay close to home. In our sample, 71.5
percent of job applications were to jobs in job seekers’
same metro area. By comparison, 28.5 percent were to
roles in a different metro area (see Figure 3).
Although as we’ll see below, even those aiming to move
metros usually target nearby metro areas rather than
cross-country moves. In this study, we refer to these
geographically mobile job applicants as “metro movers.”
In the following sections, we’ll take a closer look at these
metro movers and the types of jobs, companies and
cities they are most attracted to in 2018.
B. The Top Destinations for Job Movers
What cities are most attractive to the nation’s more
geographically mobile job seekers? Table 1 shows the
top ten destinations for metro movers in America as
of January 2018, out of the 40 metros we examined,
along with the top five metro sources where these
job seekers are moving from.
The booming tech hub of San Francisco was the
top destination for metro movers in our sample.
San Francisco alone attracted 12.4 percent of all
applications by job seekers looking to move cities in
our sample — by far the largest of any U.S. metro.
Despite housing shortages and a high cost of living,
the San Francisco metro continues to be a hub for
economic opportunity and a magnet for the nation’s
most geographically mobile job seekers in 2018.
The megalopolis of New York City attracted the second
highest share of metro movers at 8.4 percent, followed
by the Silicon Valley stronghold San Jose, then Los
Angeles, Washington D.C. and Boston — all metros with
thriving job markets that attract ambitious talent. Also
among the top ten are several smaller tech hubs includ-
ing Seattle and Austin, as well as larger metros that have
maintained relatively more affordable cost of living such
as Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago.
In general, these top destinations attract most candi-
dates from nearby metro areas. For example, the top
sources for candidates aiming to relocate to San Francis-
co are two other large California metros: San Jose and
Los Angeles. Similarly, the top sources for those aiming
to move to New York City include nearby Washington
D.C., Philadelphia and Boston. However, as we will
explore further below, a significant share of metro
movers still aim to relocate across the country for jobs.
Figure 3. 28.5 Percent of Job Applications Are from Metro Movers Who Apply to Jobs Outside Their Metro Area
71.5% Applied to Job in Same Metro
28.5% Applied to Job in Different Metro
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
Table 1. Top Destinations for Metro Movers in January 2018
Destination Metro Percentage of Metro Movers Top 5 City Sources of Movers
San Francisco, CA 12.4%
San Jose, CALos Angeles, CANew York City, NYSacramento, CAChicago, IL
New York City, NY 8.4%
Washington, DCPhiladelphia, PABoston, MALos Angeles, CAChicago, IL
San Jose, CA 6.9%
San Francisco, CALos Angeles, CANew York City, NYDallas-Fort Worth, TXSan Diego, CA
Los Angeles, CA 6.8%
Riverside, CANew York City, NYSan Francisco, CASan Diego, CASan Jose, CA
Washington, DC 4.3%
Baltimore, MDNew York City, NYPhiladelphia, PALos Angeles, CAChicago, IL
Boston, MA 3.7%
New York City, NYProvidence, RILos Angeles, CAChicago, ILWashington, DC
Chicago, IL 3.2%
New York City, NYLos Angeles, CADallas-Fort Worth, TXWashington, DCMilwaukee, WI
Seattle, WA 3.1%
Los Angeles, CANew York City, NYSan Francisco, CASan Jose, CADallas-Fort Worth, TX
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 2.8%
Houston, TXNew York City, NYAustin, TXChicago, ILLos Angeles, CA
Austin, TX 2.3%
Dallas-Fort Worth, TXHouston, TXSan Antonio, TXNew York City, NYLos Angeles, CA
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
C. Metros with the Most Movers
For the nation as a whole, about 28.5 percent of job ap-
plications are to jobs outside of a job seekers’ metro area.
However, the number of job seekers within a single city
that are ready to pick up and move varies widely. In Table
2, we show the 40 metro areas we examined, along with
the percentage of metro movers in each. At the top of
the table are areas with the biggest fraction of applicants
willing to move to greener economic pastures elsewhere.
The college town of Providence, Rhode Island topped
the list of metro areas with the highest percentage of
applicants looking to move elsewhere. In fact, 52.2
percent of job applications started on Glassdoor by
Providence-based candidates were to another metro
area — the largest among the 40 cities we examined.
Why? One reason is geography: Providence is a 1.5 hour
drive from the large and fast-growing Boston metro.
Additionally, Providence is home to several colleges and
universities — Brown University, the Rhode Island School
of Design, Providence College and others — providing a
steady stream of graduates applying to jobs elsewhere.
The metro with the second highest share of metro movers
lies in the heart of Silicon Valley: San Jose, California.
Just under half (47.6 percent) of job applications started
by San Jose-based searchers were for a job in a different
metro area. That may come as a surprise to many, as San
Jose is a booming city with many tech jobs and rising pay.
However, it’s also one facing an astoundingly high cost
of living, with a median home price near $1.08 million
according to Zillow.5 As tech hiring spreads to many cities
beyond Silicon Valley, it’s likely competing metros are
luring away many candidates.6 A combination of booming
jobs and rising cost of living puts San Jose near the top
of two lists: It’s the third most common destination for
candidates from other metros, but it’s also the second
highest metro in terms of candidates looking to leave —
the most dynamic flow of job candidates among any city
we examined.
Other cities topping the list for having higher percentag-
es of metro movers are Riverside, California; Baltimore,
Maryland; and Sacramento, California. What do these
metros have in common? For one, they are all in close
proximity to other fast-growing metros with more
robust job markets, a combination that acts as a magnet
drawing away applicants. In each case, these cities are
a 1.5 hour drive from Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and
San Francisco, respectively.
5. “San Jose Home Prices & Values,” Zillow (accessed March 23, 2018). Available online at https://www.zillow.com/san-jose-ca/home-values/.
6. “Beyond Silicon Valley: Tech Jobs Spreading Out of Tech Hubs,” (July 2017) by Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D. Glassdoor Economic Research report. Available online at https://www.glassdoor.com/research/beyond-silicon-valley-tech-jobs-spreading-out-of-tech-hubs/.
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
Table 2. Ranking By Percentage of Metro Movers in 2018
Metro of Job CandidateJobs Applied To
(One Week Period in January 2018)Metro Movers
Percentage Metro Movers
Providence, RI 4,136 2,158 52.2%
San Jose, CA 26,593 12,666 47.6%
Riverside, CA 8,787 4,154 47.3%
Baltimore, MD 9,372 4,278 45.6%
Sacramento, CA 6,490 2,883 44.4%
Columbus, OH 5,494 2,277 41.4%
Pittsburgh, PA 6,119 2,404 39.3%
Charlotte, NC 9,344 3,525 37.7%
Cincinnati, OH 5,216 1,889 36.2%
Cleveland, OH 4,693 1,655 35.3%
Milwaukee, WI 3,497 1,230 35.2%
Norfolk, VA 3,366 1,174 34.9%
San Antonio, TX 5,352 1,859 34.7%
San Diego, CA 13,207 4,421 33.5%
Washington, DC 35,782 11,482 32.1%
Orlando, FL 8,429 2,676 31.7%
Philadelphia, PA 19,037 5,989 31.5%
San Francisco, CA 39,798 12,481 31.4%
Indianapolis, IN 5,419 1,698 31.3%
Detroit, MI 11,286 3,381 30.0%
Nashville, TN 4,633 1,383 29.9%
Boston, MA 25,356 7,411 29.2%
Tampa, FL 9,496 2,754 29.0%
Kansas City, MO 5,832 1,656 28.4%
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 34,261 9,618 28.1%
Phoenix, AZ 14,491 4,044 27.9%
Portland, OR 7,523 2,031 27.0%
St. Louis, MO 6,365 1,695 26.6%
Denver, CO 11,671 3,094 26.5%
Austin, TX 11,617 3,044 26.2%
Jacksonville, FL 3,327 861 25.9%
Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL 18,292 4,715 25.8%
Los Angeles, CA 56,290 14,003 24.9%
Houston, TX 24,601 6,105 24.8%
Chicago, IL 42,348 10,092 23.8%
Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN 9,297 2,177 23.4%
Atlanta, GA 26,599 5,779 21.7%
Las Vegas, NV 5,434 1,155 21.3%
Seattle, WA 20,643 4,235 20.5%
New York City, NY 98,653 20,166 20.4%
Total 668,146 190,298 28.5%
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
What about cities with the fewest metro movers? The
metro with the fewest share of applicants looking to
move is America’s largest metro: New York City. With
more than 20 million residents, just 20.4 percent of
applications from New York City job seekers were to
jobs outside that metro. It’s followed by Seattle —
a fast-growing tech hub that’s home to e-commerce
giant Amazon, as well as Microsoft, T-Mobile and many
others — where 20.5 percent of applications were to jobs
elsewhere. Other metros including Las Vegas, Atlanta
and Minneapolis also saw the fewest metro movers.
What do these cities have in common? Most have a com-
paratively low cost of living, abundant local job opportu-
nities, and — perhaps most importantly — are located far
from the nearest metro area. Seattle, for example, lies
more than three hours away from Portland, Oregon, a
distance that’s enough to discourage many metro mov-
ers. Similarly, Las Vegas lies four hours away from either
Los Angeles or Phoenix, and Atlanta lies four hours away
from either Nashville or Charlotte.
For employers, this shows that geography — in addition
to cost of living, taxes, pay and company culture — is an
important factor to consider when choosing office loca-
tions, as it can dramatically impact their ability to attract
job candidates from outside their metro area.
D. Where Applicants Want to Go
Among the metros with a significant percentage of job
seekers leaving – where do they want to go? In Table 3,
we show the top ten metro destinations most appealing
to job applicants in each of the ten metros with the most
movers, revealing the cities that are competing
for talent.
Overall, there are several interesting patterns. First,
each city appears to follow a phenomenon economists
call a “gravity model.” All else equal, job candidates apply
to jobs in nearby metros rather than those far away. For
example, among candidates looking to leave Providence,
more than 30 percent apply to jobs in the nearby Boston
metro. More distant metros still attract a significant,
although much smaller, number of applications from
Providence, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago
and Salt Lake City.
Table 3. Top 10 Destinations for Job Applicants from Each Metro
METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: PROVIDENCE, RI
Top 10 Job Destinations Percentage of Jobs Applied To Number of Jobs Applied To
Boston, MA 30.1% 1,247
New York City, NY 4.6% 191
Worcester, MA 1.6% 67
San Francisco, CA 1.4% 58
Washington, DC 1.1% 44
Chicago, IL 0.9% 36
Salt Lake City, UT 0.8% 32
Los Angeles, CA 0.7% 28
Hartford, CT 0.7% 27
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 0.6% 26
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: SAN JOSE, CA
Top 10 Job Destinations Percentage of Jobs Applied To Number of Jobs Applied To
San Francisco, CA 28.9% 7,686
Los Angeles, CA 2.8% 751
New York City, NY 2.2% 598
Seattle, WA 1.5% 392
San Diego, CA 1.0% 272
Boston, MA 1.0% 270
Chicago, IL 0.7% 189
Washington, DC 0.6% 168
Austin, TX 0.5% 127
Sacramento, CA 0.5% 123
METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: RIVERSIDE, CA
Top 10 Job Destinations Percentage of Jobs Applied To Number of Jobs Applied To
Los Angeles, CA 27.8% 2,439
San Diego, CA 4.4% 384
San Francisco, CA 3.3% 290
San Jose, CA 1.6% 142
Seattle, WA 1.1% 93
New York City, NY 0.8% 72
Las Vegas, NV 0.6% 54
Phoenix, AZ 0.6% 50
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 0.5% 45
Portland, OR 0.4% 39
METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: BALTIMORE, MD
Top 10 Job Destinations Percentage of Jobs Applied To Number of Jobs Applied To
Washington, DC 23.6% 2,216
New York City, NY 3.6% 341
Philadelphia, PA 1.5% 140
San Francisco, CA 1.2% 110
San Jose, CA 0.9% 84
Los Angeles, CA 0.9% 83
Boston, MA 0.8% 76
Chicago, IL 0.7% 63
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 0.6% 58
Atlanta, GA 0.6% 54
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: SACRAMENTO, CA
Top 10 Job Destinations Percentage of Jobs Applied To Number of Jobs Applied To
San Francisco, CA 16.8% 1,090
San Jose, CA 5.6% 362
Los Angeles, CA 4.1% 269
New York City, NY 1.3% 86
San Diego, CA 1.2% 80
Washington, DC 1.1% 71
Boston, MA 0.9% 60
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 0.9% 59
Chicago, IL 0.7% 47
Portland, OR 0.7% 43
METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: COLUMBUS, OH
Top 10 Job Destinations Percentage of Jobs Applied To Number of Jobs Applied To
New York City, NY 4.5% 249
San Francisco, CA 3.9% 212
Chicago, IL 2.6% 142
Cincinnati, OH 2.3% 127
Seattle, WA 2.1% 116
Cleveland, OH 1.9% 105
Los Angeles, CA 1.5% 83
Washington, DC 1.5% 82
San Jose, CA 1.4% 75
Boston, MA 1.1% 60
METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: PITTSBURGH, PA
Top 10 Job Destinations Percentage of Jobs Applied To Number of Jobs Applied To
San Francisco, CA 5.1% 310
New York City, NY 4.5% 278
San Jose, CA 3.2% 197
Washington, DC 2.6% 162
Philadelphia, PA 1.8% 108
Los Angeles, CA 1.6% 96
Boston, MA 1.5% 92
Seattle, WA 1.4% 83
Chicago, IL 1.1% 68
Atlanta, GA 0.7% 45
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: CHARLOTTE, NC
Top 10 Job Destinations Percentage of Jobs Applied To Number of Jobs Applied To
New York City, NY 3.5% 327
San Francisco, CA 2.5% 236
Raleigh-Durham, NC 2.3% 213
Washington, DC 2.1% 192
San Jose, CA 1.6% 151
Atlanta, GA 1.5% 144
Boston, MA 1.5% 144
Chicago, IL 1.5% 139
Seattle, WA 1.4% 135
Los Angeles, CA 1.3% 125
METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: CINCINNATI, OH
Top 10 Job Destinations Percentage of Jobs Applied To Number of Jobs Applied To
New York City, NY 2.9% 151
Dayton, OH 2.7% 140
Columbus, OH 2.6% 135
San Francisco, CA 2.4% 123
Chicago, IL 1.7% 89
San Jose, CA 1.4% 73
Los Angeles, CA 1.3% 70
Boston, MA 1.3% 66
Washington, DC 1.2% 61
Atlanta, GA 1.1% 58
METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: CLEVELAND, OH
Top 10 Job Destinations Percentage of Jobs Applied To Number of Jobs Applied To
Akron, OH 4.8% 224
Chicago, IL 3.0% 139
Columbus, OH 2.4% 114
New York City, NY 2.1% 100
Washington, DC 1.8% 84
Los Angeles, CA 1.7% 81
San Francisco, CA 1.3% 61
Seattle, WA 1.2% 58
Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 0.8% 39
Cincinnati, OH 0.8% 37
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
E. Top Companies Applicants Consider
Worth the Move
When job seekers move to a new metro, they often do
so for a specific company. Rather than choosing a new
city, applicants usually first choose a new employer or
job that offers a unique opportunity, great pay or pleas-
ant company culture. Among the top metro destinations
attracting metro movers, which companies attract the
most applicants?
Table 4 shows a list of the top ten employers within the
cities attracting the most metro movers, as identified
above. What’s striking is the diversity of employers and
industries attracting talent in each metro — a finding that
underscores the huge differences that persist among
labor markets in America’s largest cities today.
For example, in the fast-growing tech hub of San Francis-
co, nearly every top employer attracting metro movers
is a high-profile tech giant: Facebook, Salesforces, Lyft,
Uber, AirBnb and Yelp, among others. Only one non-tech
employer made San Francisco’s top 10 list: Walmart,
which is expanding its e-commerce presence and hires
many tech roles such as software engineers, data
scientists and others. For employers in the San Francisco
metro, this suggests they’re not only competing with the
tech sector to hire local talent, but also for candidates
outside the area aiming to relocate for tech jobs.
By contrast, the labor market in New York City is much
more diversified. Top employers attracting outside talent
to New York City include a mix of more established
institutions such as JP Morgan Chase, NBC Universal and
Goldman Sachs with tech employers like Spotify, Google
and IBM.
The Washington D.C. metro differs sharply both from
New York City and San Francisco with a more traditional
and establishment mix. Top employers in the D.C. area are
health care companies like Vibrent Health, government
contractors like CACI International, consulting firms like
Booz Allen Hamilton and Deloitte, and educational insti-
tutions like the University of Maryland.
Taken together, these patterns in real-time job appli-
cations on Glassdoor are simply a mirror that reflects
well-known cultural and economic differences among
U.S. cities, and the resulting patterns of jobs and pay that
we observe throughout the nation. It’s well known that
the labor market in Washington D.C. differs substantially
from San Francisco in terms of employers hiring, jobs
available and pay. The rich and diverse economic geogra-
phy of the nation is clearly apparent in online job applica-
tions data from Glassdoor.
16
METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
Table 4. Companies Attracting the Most Metro Movers in Top Cities
DESTINATION METRO: SAN FRANCISCO, CA DESTINATION METRO: SAN JOSE, CA
Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent
Number of Job Applications from “Movers”
Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent
Number of Job Applications from “Movers”
Facebook, Inc. 635 Google Inc. 519
Salesforce 291 Apple Inc. 358
Lyft 240 Adobe Systems Incorporated 315
Uber 240 NVIDIA Corporation 277
Shutterfly, Inc. 237 Amazon.com, Inc. 253
AirBnb, Inc. 228 Udacity 243
Yelp Inc. 223 Quora, Inc. 198
Fitbit Inc. 202 Yahoo! Inc. 195
Google Inc. 188 Cisco Systems, Inc. 169
Wal-Mart.com USA, LLC 188International Business Machines Corporation
169
DESTINATION METRO: NEW YORK CITY, NY DESTINATION METRO: LOS ANGELES, CA
Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent
Number of Job Applications from “Movers”
Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent
Number of Job Applications from “Movers”
JPMorgan Chase & Co. 157 The Walt Disney Company 270
Spotify Limited 150 NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab 165
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.
122 NBC Universal, Inc. 129
Justworks, INC. 117 Netflix, Inc. 128
Home Box Office, Inc. 110 Viacom Inc. 106
International Business Machines Corporation
109Sony Computer
Entertainment America101
NBC Universal, Inc. 107 CyberCoders, Inc. 96
McKinsey & Company, Inc. 103International Business Machines Corporation
92
Google Inc. 95 University of California 92
Oscar Insurance Corporation 94 Snap, Inc. 87
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
DESTINATION METRO: WASHINGTON, D.C. DESTINATION METRO: CHICAGO, IL
Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent
Number of Job Applications from “Movers”
Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent
Number of Job Applications from “Movers”
Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. 139 Motorola Solutions, Inc. 93
International Business Machines Corporation
130 Citadel Securities LLC 66
Latitude Inc. 72 TransUnion LLC 58
Ecosystems 70International Business Machines Corporation
51
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
67 AKUNA CAPITAL 47
Vibrent Health 61 Discover Financial Services 45
Leidos Holdings, Inc. 58 Groupon, Inc. 44
CACI International Inc 54 McKinsey & Company, Inc. 44
Deloitte 54 Relativity 41
The University of Maryland 53 Shure Incorporated 41
DESTINATION METRO: BOSTON, MA DESTINATION METRO: SEATTLE, WA
Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent
Number of Job Applications from “Movers”
Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent
Number of Job Applications from “Movers”
Bose Corporation 95 Amazon.com, Inc. 536
Massachusetts General Hospital
85 Microsoft Corporation 209
International Business Machines Corporation
80 T-Mobile USA, Inc. 99
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated
76 Zillow, Inc. 97
McKinsey & Company, Inc. 72 Google Inc. 95
Wayfair 70 Expedia, Inc. 75
Raybeam, Inc. 69 Facebook, Inc. 74
Raytheon Company 63 SAP Aktiengesellschaft 67
The Brigham and Women's Hospital, Inc.
56 Starbucks Corporation 63
The Boston Consulting Group Inc.
49 Vulcan Inc. 60
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
DESTINATION METRO: DALLAS-FORT WORTH, TX DESTINATION METRO: AUSTIN, TX
Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent
Number of Job Applications from “Movers”
Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent
Number of Job Applications from “Movers”
AMR Corporation 115International Business Machines Corporation
103
Lockheed Martin Corporation
99 Dell Inc. 93
The Allstate Corporation 92The University of Texas
at Austin84
International Business Machines Corporation
80 PayPal, Inc. 72
Texas Instruments Incorporated
64 Silicon Laboratories Inc. 60
Baylor Scott & White Health 48 Facebook, Inc. 45
University of Texas South-western Medical Center
42 Amazon.com, Inc. 44
Bank of America Corporation
39 Cirrus Logic, Inc. 44
Texas Health Resources Inc. 38 Electronic Arts Inc. 44
Amazon.com, Inc. 33 NXP Semiconductors N.V. 40
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)
F. Jobs That Move Better Than Others
Not all jobs offer the same geographic mobility to workers.
Some jobs attract qualified applicants from all over the U.S.,
while others draw mostly local talent from the nearby labor
market. Which jobs today are most likely to attract talent
from distant metros?
Table 5 shows the top 25 job titles on Glassdoor with the
largest percentage of metro movers in 2018. The most
geographically mobile jobs are generally engineering and
tech roles. The most mobile job in our sample was chemical
engineer, with 73.1 percent of applications to jobs outside
the person’s current metro — 2.5 times the overall average
in our sample. They’re followed by Oracle database
administrator (69 percent are metro movers), ATG devel-
oper (67.5 percent are metro movers), industrial engineer
(61.9 percent are metro movers) and Salesforce developer
(59.7 percent are metro movers).
Why are tech and engineering jobs so geographically
mobile? Partly, it’s due to labor demand: employers for
these roles are often concentrated in a few big metros and
actively hire talent from across the U.S. It’s also due to labor
supply: many candidates for tech and engineering roles are
relatively young, highly educated and more willing to pick
up and move cross country for their career.
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
Table 5. Job Titles with the Highest Share of Metro Movers
Job Title Applied To Number of Job Applications Metro Movers Percentage Metro Movers
Chemical Engineer 535 391 73.1%
Oracle Database Administrator 532 367 69.0%
ATG Developer 530 358 67.5%
Industrial Engineer 607 376 61.9%
Salesforce Developer 760 454 59.7%
Flight Attendant 750 447 59.6%
Data Engineer 2,604 1,543 59.3%
Structural Engineer 500 296 59.2%
Mobile Developer 797 469 58.8%
Process Engineer 1,214 702 57.8%
Data Scientist 7,808 4,469 57.2%
Database Administrator 960 549 57.2%
Software Engineer 28,934 16,495 57.0%
Devops Engineer 1,295 727 56.1%
ASIC Physical Design Engineer 574 313 54.5%
Design Engineer 713 385 54.0%
Software Development Engineer 1,679 900 53.6%
Actuarial Analyst 530 276 52.1%
UX Researcher 687 351 51.1%
Network Engineer 2,149 1,092 50.8%
Mechanical Engineer 3,905 1,965 50.3%
Research Scientist 1,099 546 49.7%
Manufacturing Engineer 1,104 546 49.5%
Software Developer 5,134 2,519 49.1%
SQL Developer 519 255 49.1%
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)
Which jobs have the lowest share of metro movers?
Table 6 shows the job titles of job seekers least likely to
move. Americans in these roles mostly stay close to home
and rarely apply to jobs outside their current metro area.
Bartender was the least geographically mobile role with
just 8.7 percent of applicants coming from an outside
metro. They’re followed by retail representative
(10 percent metro movers), delivery driver (10 percent
metro movers), receptionist (10.1 percent metro movers)
and retail team member (10.3 percent metro movers).
20
METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
Overall, these roles are lower-skilled positions that are
typically filled from within the local labor market. Salaries
for many of these jobs are below the median U.S. pay of
roughly $51,975 per year for full-time workers,7 making it
hard to justify a cross-country move for most applicants.
In addition, employers for these roles are widely dis-
persed throughout the U.S. and are not clustered in just
a few metros like many specialized tech and engineering
jobs. Applicants looking for bartender roles, for example,
need not move to find an open position — many are avail-
able close to home.
The irony of these “metro stayer” positions is that be-
cause they’re widely available, you might expect outward
migration from expensive cities toward more affordable
areas for these roles. For example, candidates for retail
representative jobs have their choice of open jobs in
essentially every U.S. city, unlike a more specialized role
like database engineer that may require living in a high
cost of living metro. So do retail representatives flee to
lower cost of living areas? Our data shows lower-skilled
candidates are just as likely to stay close to home,
regardless of a city’s affordability.
Table 6. Job Titles with the Lowest Share of Metro Movers
Job Title Applied To Job Applications Metro Movers Percentage Metro Movers
Bartender 967 84 8.7%
Retail Representative 988 99 10.0%
Delivery Driver 927 93 10.0%
Receptionist 4,707 477 10.1%
Retail Team Member 3,218 332 10.3%
Front Desk Agent 721 74 10.3%
Barista 1,263 132 10.5%
Bank Teller 1,191 125 10.5%
Forklift Operator 571 60 10.5%
Order Selector 990 106 10.7%
Server 1,468 158 10.8%
Host 795 86 10.8%
Clerk 650 70 10.8%
Customer Service Representative 4,368 486 11.1%
Cashier 3,480 388 11.1%
File Clerk 713 80 11.2%
Housekeeper 847 96 11.3%
Accounts Receivable 799 92 11.5%
Accounting Clerk 737 85 11.5%
Cook 553 64 11.6%
Accounts Payable 839 100 11.9%
Material Handler 787 94 11.9%
Store Manager 2,576 308 12.0%
Accounts Payable Specialist 674 81 12.0%
Office Assistant 1,176 142 12.1%
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)
7. Glassdoor “Local Pay Reports,” February 2018 (accessed March 23, 2018). Available online at www.glassdoor.com/research/local-pay-reports/.
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
G. Do Metro Movers Earn More?
Many of the most geographically mobile jobs are
high-paying roles in tech and engineering. By contrast,
many of the least mobile jobs are lower-skilled jobs in
retail, food services and other blue-collar roles. Do more
geographically mobile job candidates earn higher pay
on average? The short answer: yes, especially if it’s for
a tech job.
Figure 4 shows a scatterplot of the relationship between
pay and geographic mobility among job applicants on
Glassdoor. Each dot is one job title we examined. On the
horizontal axis is the percent of applicants who were
willing to move for each job. On the vertical axis is the
average estimated base salary for each job applied to for
these roles. The blue line shows the best fitting linear
model for the data — a clear positive link between higher
pay and more mobile job applicants.
Figure 4: Geographically Mobile Jobs Generally Earn Higher Pay
Why is there a link between higher pay and a willingness
to move for jobs? It reflects a mixture of both cause and
effect: The higher the pay, the more likely the job is to
attract candidates from distant metros, since higher
paying roles justify cross-metro moves. However, job
seekers who are willing to move also enjoy more
bargaining power. Those who are most geographically
mobile can attract offers from the entire U.S. labor
market, rather than just a narrow set of employers in
their home area, which often translates into higher pay.
Percentage of Applications Moving to New Metro
(each point represents one job title)
Metro Movers Earn Higher Pay
Med
ian
Bas
e P
ay
22
METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
III. Which Job Factors Most Attract Metro Movers?
In the previous section, we revealed several stylized
facts about Americans searching for jobs beyond their
metro on Glassdoor. In this section, we take a closer look
at the data and estimate which job or applicant factors
statistically predict whether a job seeker will be willing
to move metros for a job — whether it’s for better pay,
a higher -rated company on Glassdoor, or other factors
like education, age and gender of candidates.
Below we estimate a “linear probability model” to
identify which factors best predict whether candidates
will apply to jobs outside their metro, all else equal.
This shows how higher pay, better company culture and
job candidate characteristics separately influence the
likelihood that a job seeker will look beyond their home
metro for a job.
Table 7 shows the summary statistics we used for our
regression model. This is a smaller subset of the overall
sample because only whole records, with data on each
factor, were used. In total, we used 35,999 online job
applications started on Glassdoor during the week of
January 8, 2018. Metro movers made up 36 percent of
applicants, applying to jobs with a mean base salary of
$87,907 per year. The average company rating was 3.7
out of 5 stars. Men were 59 percent of applicants, while
41 percent were women. The average age was 33 years.
Table 7. Summary Statistics for the Data (Regression Model)
Statistic Observations Mean St. Dev. Min Max
Metro Mover (Mover = 1) 35,999 0.36 0.48 0 1
Job Salary 35,999 $87,907 $38,234 $14,528 $295,757
Glassdoor Rating 35,999 3.7 0.6 1 5
Gender (Male = 1) 35,999 0.59 0.49 0 1
Age 35,999 33.0 9.7 19 65
High School 35,999 0.06 0.24 0 1
Associate's Degree 35,999 0.01 0.12 0 1
Bachelor's Degree 35,999 0.6 0.49 0 1
Master's Degree 35,999 0.25 0.43 0 1
Ph.D. 35,999 0.00 0.06 0 1
Professional Degree (JD, MD, MBA)
35,999 0.02 0.12 0 1
Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)
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METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
Using the data in Table 7, we estimated the following linear probability model via ordinary least squares (OLS),
Prob(Moverij = 1) =ß
0+ ß
1Salary
ij+ß
2Culture
ij+ß
3Controls
ij+αi+γj+εij
where P(Mover) is a binary indicator equal to 1 for metro movers applying to job title i from metro j, and 0 otherwise;
Salary is the estimated base pay for the job opening; Culture is the employer’s overall Glassdoor 1-5 star rating;
Controls include age, education and gender of the job applicant; and α and γ are job title and metro fixed effects,
respectively. ε is the usual mean-zero error term for all other unobserved factors.
Our regression results are shown in Table 8. It shows the predicted impact each factor has on the probability that a
job seeker is a metro mover, with the corresponding standard errors in parentheses. In Column 1, we show estimates
that don’t control for any differences among job titles or metros. In Column 2, we control for differences in job titles.
Column 3 controls for both metro location and applicants’ job titles.
Here’s a summary of our key findings:
• Salary drives candidates to move. But the effect
of higher pay is small. Our estimates show an extra
$10,000 higher base salary predicts applicants are
about a half percentage point (0.41 percentage point)
more likely to be a metro mover for a job. That’s
statistically significant, but a small effect overall.
• But better company culture is more attractive to
movers. Applicants are 2.5 percentage points more
likely to move for a job at a company that has a 1-star
higher overall Glassdoor rating. That’s a statistically
significant impact and is roughly six times larger than
the impact of offering a $10,000 higher salary.
• The more educated, the more likely to move.
Workers with a master’s degree are about 4.9
percentage points more likely they’ll be willing to
move for a job. Those with a 2-year associate’s
degree are least likely to move metros for a job and
are 7.4 percentage points less likely to move metros.
• Younger workers are more likely to be metro movers.
On average, the older a worker, the less likely they’re
willing to move for a job. In fact, each one higher
age group (which corresponds to roughly ten years)
predicts candidates will be 7 percentage points less
likely to be a metro mover. For employers who need
to hire experienced candidates from other areas,
recruiters should plan to actively recruit these
candidates — and be prepared to compensate more
senior movers with either premium offers or have
excellent workplace culture.
• Men are more likely to move metros, even after
controlling for job titles, education and age. All else
equal, we found men in our sample were 3.3 percent-
age points more likely to apply to jobs in another
metro than women. That suggests employers look-
ing to attract metro movers should plan to make
conscious outreach efforts to women — particularly
in tech and engineering roles that attract the most
metro movers — as women are statistically less likely
to appear in employer applicant pools otherwise.
24
METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.
Table 8: Regression of Metro Movers on Salary, Company Culture and Controls
Variable (Impact on Probability of Being a Metro Mover)Model (1)
No ControlsModel (2)
Job Title ControlsModel (3) Job Title and
Metro Controls
Median Salary of Job (x $10,000) 0.011*** -0.002 0.004***
(0.00) (0.00) (0.00)
Glassdoor Company Rating 0.027*** 0.016*** 0.025***
(0.01) (0.01) (0.01)
Gender (Male = 1) 0.076*** 0.030*** 0.033***
(0.01) (0.01) (0.01)
Age Group -0.106*** -0.066*** -0.070***
(0.00) (0.00) (0.00)
Associate’s Degree -0.025 -0.044** -0.074***
(0.02) (0.02) (0.02)
Bachelor’s Degree 0.018* -0.005 -0.013
(0.01) (0.01) (0.01)
Master's Degree 0.126*** 0.067*** 0.049***
(0.01) (0.01) (0.01)
Ph.D. 0.071* -0.02 -0.026
(0.04) (0.05) (0.05)
Professional Degree (JD, MD, MBA) -0.03 -0.01 -0.02
(0.02) (0.02) (0.02)
Constant 0.330*** 0.681*** 0.644***
(0.02) (0.1) (0.1)
Controls:
Job Title Controls X X
Metro Location Controls X
Observations 35,999 35,999 35,999
Adjusted R2 0.08 0.15 0.19
Note: Regression of a 0/1 dummy indicator for the presence of being a metro mover on various characteristics of jobs, candidates and employers. Heteroskedasticity robust standard errors are shown in parentheses.Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (glassdoor.com/research/)
100 Shoreline Hwy, Mill Valley, CA 94941 glassdoor.com/research | Email: [email protected]
Copyright © 2008–2018, Glassdoor, Inc. “Glassdoor” and logo are proprietary trademarks of Glassdoor, Inc.
8. See for example, “What Matters More to Your Workforce than Money,” (January 2017) by Andrew Chamberlain. Harvard Business Review. Available at https://hbr.org/2017/01/what-matters-more-to-your-workforce-than-money.
IV. Conclusion
In this study, we examined a large sample of online job
applications from Glassdoor to help better understand
the types of candidates who are most willing to relocate
for jobs and why. What can employers trying to attract
talent from across the U.S. learn from our findings?
First, most job candidates prefer to stay close to home.
So candidate pools for most jobs will typically be
comprised of local applicants. For employers choosing
locations for new offices and facilities, it’s important to
look beyond monetary factors like taxes and real estate
costs. Employers should consider the local labor market
and whether it contains the skills and education they’ll
need to hire, because most job applications will be
coming from the nearby labor force.
Second, some jobs are better able to attract talent from
outside metros than others. Applicants for tech and
engineering roles on Glassdoor are most willing to
relocate for jobs. However, applicants for many low-
er-skilled roles in retail, food services and some blue-
collar jobs are unlikely to apply to jobs outside their
home metro — these are jobs employers will have to
make a special effort for if they wish to recruit talent
from more distant metro areas.
Third, when it comes to enticing applicants to relocate,
we find strong evidence that both pay and company
culture matter. However, good company culture matters
much more to applicants than pay — an employer having
a 1-star higher overall rating on Glassdoor can expect
to attract a metro mover at about six times the rate of
employers paying a $10,000 higher salary, based on our
estimates. As we’ve shown in past research, pay matters
for talent attraction, but it’s statistically often a less
important factor than having a strong employer brand.8
Fourth, women and more experienced workers are less
likely to apply to jobs outside their home metro, even
after controlling for factors like education, pay and job
titles. For employers looking to hire specialized tech and
engineering jobs that attract the most metro movers, this
suggests employers will face less diverse applicant pools
on average unless they specifically recruit women and
more experienced candidates. This is an often overlooked
cause of applicant pools that lack diversity — something
employers can overcome by targeting outreach efforts at
these under-represented groups when hiring nationally
for specialized roles.
America’s labor market is more dynamic than ever, with
applicants increasingly researching and comparing jobs
online during their search process. This study illustrates
which candidates are most likely to move for jobs in
America today — and what employers can do to attract
these mobile applicants in 2018.