Facing the Geographical Challenges of a Job

Most of us would prefer a job that is close to home—ideally within a short walking distance. But jobs are rarely so convenient, so many people must travel great distances. The problem may be that you live in a small town that has very few jobs. Or you may live in a suburban residential area that has virtually no jobs. Or the type of job you prefer may not exist near your residence—for example, if you are a mining engineer, a lumberjack, an airline employee, or a college professor. Or unemployment may be especially high in the city or state where you live.

All these factors may make you think about moving. Yet this decision is a major one that can affect lifestyles in so many ways—it breaks ties with family and friends, and costs a lot of money—that many people view a move as only the last resort. Moving tends to be less disruptive for young unmarried people than for older married people with a family, who must consider the effect on their children and their spouse, and possibly have to sell a cherished home.


The decision to relocate must be a personal one and it is up to each person to decide how long to spend looking for a job near home before agreeing to move someplace where more desirable jobs are more plentiful. And the chances of obtaining a job near home must be compared to the chances of finding one in another city.

Alternatives to relocating

Let's assume that you have spent much time looking for jobs nearby, and are convinced that you can't get the type of job you want near your home. What else can you do, other than moving?

One alternative is to consider other types of jobs that are in greater supply near your home. As we've mentioned, people change their type of job regularly: In a five-year period, about 32 percent of the working population changed their job type.

A second alternative is to commute to work, if the distances are not too great. A Census Bureau study found that job seekers travel long distances to seek work—79 percent traveled more than 5 miles, and 28 percent traveled over 100 miles. Although the average job seeker traveled no more than about 15 miles, many had to travel much further to investigate a desirable job. Evidence of this commutation is plentiful—crowded commuter trains and highways transport workers from their homes to their places of work, taking an hour or two for the trip. Inconvenient? Yes. But commuting does allow people to work at a desired job without either relocating or living in an undesired location.

Does relocating do any good

Can relocation really be a solution when unemployment is high everywhere? Probably. Even when the national unemployment rate is quite high because of a generally depressed economy, different cities almost always exhibit great variation. In the general recession from 1974-1977, the national unemployment rate was about 7-8 percent; yet during that same time, the unemployment rate in Wichita, Dallas, and many other cities was about 4-5 percent, but as much as 15 percent in parts of New York City.

At the same time that job seekers in one city were competing intensely for a very few openings, employers in another city were competing intensely for a very few job seekers. Businesses are already aware of the differences in the availability of job seekers in different parts of the country, and they often make a systematic study of these variations in labor supply when deciding where to relocate.

So you, as an individual job seeker, should find out which parts of the country have a high employment rate, make comparisons with what's available locally, and then decide whether to relocate based on this definite knowledge. You can get this information from the U.S. Department of Labor, or from a library. Once you know where jobs are more plentiful, your decision can be based on facts and not on rumor or general impressions. And you can be fairly certain that in some other place, jobs will be more plentiful.