Geographical Labor Mobility

What is Geographical Labor Mobility?

Geographical labor mobility refers to the level of flexibility and freedom that workers have to move from one region or locale to another in order to find gainful employment in their field.

Understanding Geographical Labor Mobility

Geographic labor mobility refers to the ability of workers within a specific economy to relocate to find new or better employment. It can be compared to occupational labor mobility, which is workers' ability to change jobs or professions irrespective of geographical location. Geographical labor mobility can also be related to capital mobility or the mobility of economic goods.

There are several determinants of geographic labor mobility. The ease of movement and migration and the economic incentives to relocate are the main determinants of an economy’s fluidity of geographic labor mobility. Physical, geographic, and political barriers to movement are key factors that can make moving more difficult. At the economic level, a region's size, distance, and aggregate job opportunities determine the geographic labor mobility. At the personal level, however, determinants of the individual’s specific personal circumstances, such as family situation, housing issues, local infrastructure, and individual education affect geographic labor mobility. An economy's level of trade is also a direct factor in the geographic labor mobility of its workforce. For example, increasing the level of domestic and international trade requires that offices and other institutions be opened in various parts of a country, increasing job opportunities in these locations.

Other Elements That Affect Geographic Mobility

In addition to the major root factors, there are other, specific key factors that can make geographic labor mobility more or less available. First, the aggregate level of education influences the mobility of the labor force, with a higher education generally resulting in greater ability to move in order to find employment.

Personal and cultural attitudes also drive labor mobility. For example, if an individual employee has no motivation to seek employment elsewhere, they will not, which results in low geographic labor mobility. Agricultural developments can also affect labor mobility as they drive people from densely populated areas to less-densely populated areas during busy seasonal periods.

Another key determinant is industrialization. Highly industrialized economies provide more blue collar job opportunities, which increases the labor mobility of the economy. More specifically, an industrialized economy helps workers move from rural locations to larger cities where there are more job opportunities.

Government policies can also heavily influence geographic labor mobility. In global economic terms, the European Union actively tries to increase the geographic labor mobility of individuals by helping qualified workers find employment in other countries and cross national borders to spur individual, corporate, and national economic growth. If a government wants to increase geographic labor mobility, there are several actions it can take. The country can support transportation options, help raise the standard of living, and advance government policies that help with mobility within an economy.

One negative result of geographic labor mobility is the brain drain, or human capital flight, from developing regions and nations.

Pros and Cons of Geographic Labor Mobility

Geographic labor mobility provides several benefits to a nation's economy. Chief among them is better allocation of the supply of labor and productivity. When workers can move to where the jobs are, more workers find employment and businesses can obtain the labor they need, where they need it. An economic study published in The Yale Law Journal in 2017 points out that geographic labor mobility makes managing macroeconomic stability easier and that local barriers to mobility can make macroeconomic policy less effective.

On the other hand, while geographic labor mobility is promoted as an ideal situation in blackboard economic models, it also has its downside. Labor mobility is associated with the dissolution of local communities and extinction of indigenous cultures as members migrate to seek economic opportunities and resettle in areas in which they are culturally alien. This tends to erode social capital in both the locations that workers leave and in new areas they move into. Geographic labor mobility is also the direct cause of the brain drain, or human capital flight, from developing regions and nations.

Geographic Labor Mobility In the United States

The United States presents an interesting case study of geographic labor mobility during and after the development of economic systems.