Why Americans Don't Want to Move for Jobs Anymore
Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago
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Labor MarketGeographic MobilityJob Market Trends
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Labor Market
Geographic Mobility
Job Market Trends
The article explores why Americans are increasingly reluctant to relocate for job opportunities, sparking discussions on the interplay between job market trends, personal priorities, and economic factors.
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Oct 8, 2025 at 11:36 AM EDT
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I had a good friend in college who never utilized her degree because she was not willing to move out of St. Louis. She wanted to be close to her family more than she wanted to get a job that made use of her degree. Today, she might've been able to find a job that better used her skills and still got to be around for her niece to grow up.
The choice of "family or job" sucks. It's always sucked. (Well, unless you're looking to get away from your family...) Now people have more options.
I can’t say I know anyone who left a small town in the south who pine to go back even if there were jobs.
Also, there are certainly people who actually want to move for a job itself. I'm just asserting that they're a very small minority.
“Unambitious Loser With Happy, Fulfilling Life Still Lives In Hometown”
https://theonion.com/unambitious-loser-with-happy-fulfilling...
Read the article, it’s a condemnation of people who think the guy is “a loser”. It’s not an insult to people who decide to stay in small towns.
I'd even take it a step further: if you're happy in the place you live, moving for a job is a mistake.
The average mid level to senior developer[1] in Atlanta and most other 2nd tier cities working in enterprise dev makes between $130K to $170K and that’s been surprisingly stagnant and hasn’t kept up with inflation since 2016. Compare that to a developer working in any of the major public tech companies or competitive private companies wheee you can make $250K+ easily.
I don’t live in Atlanta anymore and I’m no longer officially a developer. But most developer jobs that come to me are still from there and that’s where I know the most non BigTech developers from.
No you won’t be buying the big house in the burbs. But even if you rent a place twice as expensive, you’ll still come out ahead.
What if you have a house? If I were young today and no kids, I wouldn’t buy a house so I would have the mobility. I would live light so I could move easily.
[1] no matter what your title is, you will be leveled as a mid level developer in any nsjor tech company if all you do is pull well defined tasks off of the board
I have never in 30 years had the mindset that I need my current job to get ahead. I needed a job. I’m now on my tenth. 7 of them were in Atlanta until 2020 and the last three were remote and we moved from Atlanta to state tax free Florida after COVID.