Moving On

Mobility has been a characteristic of American workers since the 70's, when the greatest bulk of the baby boom graduated from college and set out determined to forge a life different from their parents' life.

No house in the suburbs and 2.3 kids for them, rather a professional life that came with an assumption of movement. Movement upwards in a profession often meant movement around the country, chasing opportunity.

Then came the booming 90s. Boomers had 401(k)s getting fatter with the stock market, and a dip in the housing market made it excusable to give up the apartment and buy a house. Later, mortagage rates got so low and loans became so easy to get that home ownership skyrocketed.

But with all that homesteading came rootedness. Immobility. Workers were no longer quick to pick up and move for better jobs. Especially when so many were nearing the last decade or so of their working careers. They had the house, their family, their town, and a plump portfolio. Why move for a few thousand more? For slightly more responsibility?

And this meant a big problem for business. Now they had to fish for talent mainly from local seas. Or look far away in lands where home ownership is a fantasy and movement a given. To get people to up stakes and move to a new city, a new state, took major enticements. Bonuses, stock options, generous relocation packages - costly stuff and tough on the bottom line. And still too few took up the offer.

Fast forward to the present. A great big economic sinkhole has opened up and the nest eggs, along with many of the homes, of American workers have been sucked down and away. Gone - maybe forever. Certainly for years, which can be forever for a 50-something Boomer.

Now mobility has returned. Everyone is older, maybe not wiser, but definitely mobile. Houses gone, kids grown up and away, so no reason to stay. Movement for newly necessary jobs is more than OK.

Imagine leaving your home and friends and moving to a new state, a new city - a new country even. It's not something Boomers expected for their golden years. But ironically enough, it's what they set out in life believing was their difference and their right. Maybe our little depression is a kind of salvation?

Moving on ...