RESEARCH REPORT Metro Movers: Where Are Americans Moving for Jobs, And Is It Worth It?

Transcription

1 RESEARCH REPORT Metro Movers: Where Are Americans Moving for Jobs, And Is It Worth It?, Chief Economist, Glassdoor

2 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 workrelated 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. 3 Introduction 4 Who Are America s Metro Movers 22 Which Job Factors Most Attract Metro Movers 25 Conclusion

3 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 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. 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. 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 2. Declining Mover Rate Driven by Renters, Census Bureau Reports, (November 15, 2017), U.S. Census Bureau news release. Available online at 3

4 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 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, 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 location 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 addition, 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. 4

5 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 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 month 4 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 4. Source: Glassdoor internal statistics, March

6 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. Figure 1. Starting an Online Job Application on Glassdoor Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (glassdoor.com/research/) 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 Number of Job Seekers Average = 5.2 job applications per week Job Applications Per Week Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (glassdoor.com/research/) 6

7 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 Figure Percent of Job Applications Are from Metro Movers Who Apply to Jobs Outside Their Metro Area 28.5% Applied to Job in Different Metro 71.5% Applied to Job in Same Metro 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 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 including 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 candidates from nearby metro areas. For example, the top sources for candidates aiming to relocate to San Francisco 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. 7

8 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% New York City, NY 8.4% San Jose, CA 6.9% Los Angeles, CA 6.8% Washington, DC 4.3% Boston, MA 3.7% Chicago, IL 3.2% Seattle, WA 3.1% Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 2.8% Austin, TX 2.3% San Jose, CA Los Angeles, CA New York City, NY Sacramento, CA Chicago, IL Washington, DC Philadelphia, PA Boston, MA Los Angeles, CA Chicago, IL San Francisco, CA Los Angeles, CA New York City, NY Dallas-Fort Worth, TX San Diego, CA Riverside, CA New York City, NY San Francisco, CA San Diego, CA San Jose, CA Baltimore, MD New York City, NY Philadelphia, PA Los Angeles, CA Chicago, IL New York City, NY Providence, RI Los Angeles, CA Chicago, IL Washington, DC New York City, NY Los Angeles, CA Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Washington, DC Milwaukee, WI Los Angeles, CA New York City, NY San Francisco, CA San Jose, CA Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Houston, TX New York City, NY Austin, TX Chicago, IL Los Angeles, CA Dallas-Fort Worth, TX Houston, TX San Antonio, TX New York City, NY Los Angeles, CA 8

9 C. Metros with the Most Movers For the nation as a whole, about 28.5 percent of job applications 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 percentages 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 6. Beyond Silicon Valley: Tech Jobs Spreading Out of Tech Hubs, (July 2017) by Glassdoor Economic Research report. Available online at 9

10 Table 2. Ranking By Percentage of Metro Movers in 2018 Metro of Job Candidate Jobs Applied To (One Week Period in January 2018) Metro Movers Percentage Metro Movers Providence, RI 4,136 2, % San Jose, CA 26,593 12, % Riverside, CA 8,787 4, % Baltimore, MD 9,372 4, % Sacramento, CA 6,490 2, % Columbus, OH 5,494 2, % Pittsburgh, PA 6,119 2, % Charlotte, NC 9,344 3, % Cincinnati, OH 5,216 1, % Cleveland, OH 4,693 1, % Milwaukee, WI 3,497 1, % Norfolk, VA 3,366 1, % San Antonio, TX 5,352 1, % San Diego, CA 13,207 4, % Washington, DC 35,782 11, % Orlando, FL 8,429 2, % Philadelphia, PA 19,037 5, % San Francisco, CA 39,798 12, % Indianapolis, IN 5,419 1, % Detroit, MI 11,286 3, % Nashville, TN 4,633 1, % Boston, MA 25,356 7, % Tampa, FL 9,496 2, % Kansas City, MO 5,832 1, % Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 34,261 9, % Phoenix, AZ 14,491 4, % Portland, OR 7,523 2, % St. Louis, MO 6,365 1, % Denver, CO 11,671 3, % Austin, TX 11,617 3, % Jacksonville, FL 3, % Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL 18,292 4, % Los Angeles, CA 56,290 14, % Houston, TX 24,601 6, % Chicago, IL 42,348 10, % Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN 9,297 2, % Atlanta, GA 26,599 5, % Las Vegas, NV 5,434 1, % Seattle, WA 20,643 4, % New York City, NY 98,653 20, % Total 668, , % 10

11 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 comparatively low cost of living, abundant local job opportunities, 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 movers. 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 locations, 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 11

12 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 12

13 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 13

14 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 14

15 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 pleasant 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. 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 institutions like the University of Maryland. For example, in the fast-growing tech hub of San Francisco, 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. Taken together, these patterns in real-time job applications 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 geography of the nation is clearly apparent in online job applications data from Glassdoor. 15

16 Table 4. Companies Attracting the Most Metro Movers in Top Cities DESTINATION METRO: SAN FRANCISCO, CA Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent Number of Job Applications from Movers DESTINATION METRO: SAN JOSE, CA 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 188 International Business Machines Corporation 169 DESTINATION METRO: NEW YORK CITY, NY Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent Number of Job Applications from Movers DESTINATION METRO: LOS ANGELES, CA 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 109 Sony Computer Entertainment America 101 NBC Universal, Inc. 107 CyberCoders, Inc. 96 McKinsey & Company, Inc. 103 International Business Machines Corporation 92 Google Inc. 95 University of California 92 Oscar Insurance Corporation 94 Snap, Inc

17 DESTINATION METRO: WASHINGTON, D.C. Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent Number of Job Applications from Movers DESTINATION METRO: CHICAGO, IL 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 70 Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory International Business Machines Corporation 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 DESTINATION METRO: BOSTON, MA Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent Number of Job Applications from Movers DESTINATION METRO: SEATTLE, WA Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent Number of Job Applications from Movers Bose Corporation 95 Amazon.com, Inc. 536 Massachusetts General Hospital International Business Machines Corporation Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated 85 Microsoft Corporation T-Mobile USA, Inc 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. The Boston Consulting Group Inc. 56 Starbucks Corporation Vulcan Inc

18 DESTINATION METRO: DALLAS-FORT WORTH, TX Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent Number of Job Applications from Movers AMR Corporation 115 Lockheed Martin Corporation The Allstate Corporation 92 International Business Machines Corporation Texas Instruments Incorporated DESTINATION METRO: AUSTIN, TX Top 10 Employers Attracting Talent International Business Machines Corporation Number of Job Applications from Movers 99 Dell Inc. 93 The University of Texas at Austin 80 PayPal, Inc Silicon Laboratories Inc. 60 Baylor Scott & White Health 48 Facebook, Inc University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Bank of America Corporation 42 Amazon.com, Inc Cirrus Logic, Inc. 44 Texas Health Resources Inc. 38 Electronic Arts Inc. 44 Amazon.com, Inc. 33 NXP Semiconductors N.V. 40 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 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 developer (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. 18

19 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 % Oracle Database Administrator % ATG Developer % Industrial Engineer % Salesforce Developer % Flight Attendant % Data Engineer 2,604 1, % Structural Engineer % Mobile Developer % Process Engineer 1, % Data Scientist 7,808 4, % Database Administrator % Software Engineer 28,934 16, % Devops Engineer 1, % ASIC Physical Design Engineer % Design Engineer % Software Development Engineer 1, % Actuarial Analyst % UX Researcher % Network Engineer 2,149 1, % Mechanical Engineer 3,905 1, % Research Scientist 1, % Manufacturing Engineer 1, % Software Developer 5,134 2, % SQL Developer % 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). 19

20 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 dispersed 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 available close to home. The irony of these metro stayer positions is that because 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 % Retail Representative % Delivery Driver % Receptionist 4, % Retail Team Member 3, % Front Desk Agent % Barista 1, % Bank Teller 1, % Forklift Operator % Order Selector % Server 1, % Host % Clerk % Customer Service Representative 4, % Cashier 3, % File Clerk % Housekeeper % Accounts Receivable % Accounting Clerk % Cook % Accounts Payable % Material Handler % Store Manager 2, % Accounts Payable Specialist % Office Assistant 1, % 7. Glassdoor Local Pay Reports, February 2018 (accessed March 23, 2018). Available online at 20

21 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 Metro Movers Earn Higher Pay Median Base Pay (each point represents one job title) Percentage of Applications Moving to New Metro 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. 21

22 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, 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, Job Salary 35,999 $87,907 $38,234 $14,528 $295,757 Glassdoor Rating 35, Gender (Male = 1) 35, Age 35, High School 35, Associate's Degree 35, Bachelor's Degree 35, Master's Degree 35, Ph.D. 35, Professional Degree (JD, MD, MBA) 35,

23 Using the data in Table 7, we estimated the following linear probability model via ordinary least squares (OLS), Prob(Mover ij = 1) =ß 0 + ß 1 Salary ij +ß 2 Culture ij +ß 3 Controls ij +α i +γ j +ε ij 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 percentage points more likely to apply to jobs in another metro than women. That suggests employers looking 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. 23

24 Table 8: Regression of Metro Movers on Salary, Company Culture and Controls Variable (Impact on Probability of Being a Metro Mover) Model (1) No Controls Model (2) Job Title Controls Model (3) Job Title and Metro Controls Median Salary of Job (x $10,000) 0.011*** *** (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 *** *** *** (0.00) (0.00) (0.00) Associate s Degree ** *** (0.02) (0.02) (0.02) Bachelor s Degree 0.018* (0.01) (0.01) (0.01) Master's Degree 0.126*** 0.067*** 0.049*** (0.01) (0.01) (0.01) Ph.D * (0.04) (0.05) (0.05) Professional Degree (JD, MD, MBA) (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 R 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/) 24

25 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 lower-skilled roles in retail, food services and some bluecollar 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 Shoreline Hwy, Mill Valley, CA glassdoor.com/research economics@glassdoor.com 8. See for example, What Matters More to Your Workforce than Money, (January 2017) by Andrew Chamberlain. Harvard Business Review. Available at Copyright , Glassdoor, Inc. Glassdoor and logo are proprietary trademarks of Glassdoor, Inc.