research report may 2018 metro movers: where are … · 41 percent female, with an average age of...

RESEARCH REPORT | MAY 2018

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

Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D., Chief Economist, Glassdoor

3 Introduction

4 Who Are America’s Metro Movers

22 Which Job Factors Most Attract Metro Movers

25 Conclusion

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 work-

related 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

METRO MOVERS: WHERE ARE AMERICANS MOVING FOR JOBS, AND IS IT WORTH IT? Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D.

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

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.

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.

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 https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/sites/default/files/whitepaper/csod-wp-career-trends-report.pdf.

2. “Declining Mover Rate Driven by Renters, Census Bureau Reports,” (November 15, 2017), U.S. Census Bureau news release. Available online at https://www.census.gov/news-room/press-releases/2017/mover-rates.html.

https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/sites/default/files/whitepaper/csod-wp-career-trends-report.pdf

https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/sites/default/files/whitepaper/csod-wp-career-trends-report.pdf

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2017/mover-rates.html

https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2017/mover-rates.html

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 2018.

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, 2018.

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 lo-

cation 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 addi-

tion, 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.

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

https://www.census.gov/geo/reference/gtc/gtc_cbsa.html.

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 month4 — 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 http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/11/19/search-ing-for-work-in-the-digital-era/.

4. Source: Glassdoor internal statistics, March 2018.

https://www.census.gov/geo/reference/gtc/gtc_cbsa.html

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/11/19/searching-for-work-in-the-digital-era/

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/11/19/searching-for-work-in-the-digital-era/

6


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

Figure 1. Starting an Online Job Application on Glassdoor

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. Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (glassdoor.com/research/)

Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (glassdoor.com/research/)

Job Applications Per Week

Average = 5.2 job applications per week

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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 2018.

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 2018.

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 includ-

ing 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 candi-

dates from nearby metro areas. For example, the top

sources for candidates aiming to relocate to San Francis-

co 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.

Figure 3. 28.5 Percent of Job Applications Are from Metro Movers Who Apply to Jobs Outside Their Metro Area

71.5% Applied to Job in Same Metro

28.5% Applied to Job in Different Metro

Source: Glassdoor Economic Research (Glassdoor.com/research)

https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/san-francisco-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,13_IC1147401.htm

https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/new-york-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,8_IC1132348.htm

https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/san-jose-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,8_IC1147436.htm

https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/los-angeles-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,11_IC1146821.htm

https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/los-angeles-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,11_IC1146821.htm

https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/washington-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,10_IC1138213.htm

https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/boston-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,6_IC1154532.htm

https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/seattle-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,7_IC1150505.htm

https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/austin-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,6_IC1139761.htm

https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/dallas-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,6_IC1139977.htm

https://www.glassdoor.com/Job/chicago-jobs-SRCH_IL.0,7_IC1128808.htm

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%

San Jose, CALos Angeles, CANew York City, NYSacramento, CAChicago, IL

New York City, NY 8.4%

Washington, DCPhiladelphia, PABoston, MALos Angeles, CAChicago, IL

San Jose, CA 6.9%

San Francisco, CALos Angeles, CANew York City, NYDallas-Fort Worth, TXSan Diego, CA

Los Angeles, CA 6.8%

Riverside, CANew York City, NYSan Francisco, CASan Diego, CASan Jose, CA

Washington, DC 4.3%

Baltimore, MDNew York City, NYPhiladelphia, PALos Angeles, CAChicago, IL

Boston, MA 3.7%

New York City, NYProvidence, RILos Angeles, CAChicago, ILWashington, DC

Chicago, IL 3.2%

New York City, NYLos Angeles, CADallas-Fort Worth, TXWashington, DCMilwaukee, WI

Seattle, WA 3.1%

Los Angeles, CANew York City, NYSan Francisco, CASan Jose, CADallas-Fort Worth, TX

Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 2.8%

Houston, TXNew York City, NYAustin, TXChicago, ILLos Angeles, CA

Austin, TX 2.3%

Dallas-Fort Worth, TXHouston, TXSan Antonio, TXNew York City, NYLos Angeles, CA


9


C. Metros with the Most Movers

For the nation as a whole, about 28.5 percent of job ap-

plications 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 percentag-

es 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 https://www.zillow.com/san-jose-ca/home-values/.

6. “Beyond Silicon Valley: Tech Jobs Spreading Out of Tech Hubs,” (July 2017) by Andrew Chamberlain, Ph.D. Glassdoor Economic Research report. Available online at https://www.glassdoor.com/research/beyond-silicon-valley-tech-jobs-spreading-out-of-tech-hubs/.

https://www.zillow.com/san-jose-ca/home-values/

https://www.glassdoor.com/research/beyond-silicon-valley-tech-jobs-spreading-out-of-tech-hubs/

10


Table 2. Ranking By Percentage of Metro Movers in 2018

Metro of Job CandidateJobs Applied To

(One Week Period in January 2018)Metro Movers

Percentage Metro Movers

Providence, RI 4,136 2,158 52.2%

San Jose, CA 26,593 12,666 47.6%

Riverside, CA 8,787 4,154 47.3%

Baltimore, MD 9,372 4,278 45.6%

Sacramento, CA 6,490 2,883 44.4%

Columbus, OH 5,494 2,277 41.4%

Pittsburgh, PA 6,119 2,404 39.3%

Charlotte, NC 9,344 3,525 37.7%

Cincinnati, OH 5,216 1,889 36.2%

Cleveland, OH 4,693 1,655 35.3%

Milwaukee, WI 3,497 1,230 35.2%

Norfolk, VA 3,366 1,174 34.9%

San Antonio, TX 5,352 1,859 34.7%

San Diego, CA 13,207 4,421 33.5%

Washington, DC 35,782 11,482 32.1%

Orlando, FL 8,429 2,676 31.7%

Philadelphia, PA 19,037 5,989 31.5%

San Francisco, CA 39,798 12,481 31.4%

Indianapolis, IN 5,419 1,698 31.3%

Detroit, MI 11,286 3,381 30.0%

Nashville, TN 4,633 1,383 29.9%

Boston, MA 25,356 7,411 29.2%

Tampa, FL 9,496 2,754 29.0%

Kansas City, MO 5,832 1,656 28.4%

Dallas-Fort Worth, TX 34,261 9,618 28.1%

Phoenix, AZ 14,491 4,044 27.9%

Portland, OR 7,523 2,031 27.0%

St. Louis, MO 6,365 1,695 26.6%

Denver, CO 11,671 3,094 26.5%

Austin, TX 11,617 3,044 26.2%

Jacksonville, FL 3,327 861 25.9%

Miami-Fort Lauderdale, FL 18,292 4,715 25.8%

Los Angeles, CA 56,290 14,003 24.9%

Houston, TX 24,601 6,105 24.8%

Chicago, IL 42,348 10,092 23.8%

Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN 9,297 2,177 23.4%

Atlanta, GA 26,599 5,779 21.7%

Las Vegas, NV 5,434 1,155 21.3%

Seattle, WA 20,643 4,235 20.5%

New York City, NY 98,653 20,166 20.4%

Total 668,146 190,298 28.5%


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 com-

paratively low cost of living, abundant local job opportu-

nities, 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 mov-

ers. 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 loca-

tions, 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


12


METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: SAN JOSE, CA


San Francisco, CA 28.9% 7,686



Seattle, WA 1.5% 392

San Diego, CA 1.0% 272

Boston, MA 1.0% 270

Chicago, IL 0.7% 189


Austin, TX 0.5% 127

Sacramento, CA 0.5% 123

METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: RIVERSIDE, CA


Los Angeles, CA 27.8% 2,439



San Jose, CA 1.6% 142

Seattle, WA 1.1% 93


Las Vegas, NV 0.6% 54

Phoenix, AZ 0.6% 50


Portland, OR 0.4% 39

METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: BALTIMORE, MD


Washington, DC 23.6% 2,216


Philadelphia, PA 1.5% 140




Boston, MA 0.8% 76

Chicago, IL 0.7% 63


Atlanta, GA 0.6% 54


13


METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: SACRAMENTO, CA


San Francisco, CA 16.8% 1,090






Boston, MA 0.9% 60


Chicago, IL 0.7% 47

Portland, OR 0.7% 43

METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: COLUMBUS, OH





Cincinnati, OH 2.3% 127


Cleveland, OH 1.9% 105




Boston, MA 1.1% 60

METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: PITTSBURGH, PA






Philadelphia, PA 1.8% 108


Boston, MA 1.5% 92

Seattle, WA 1.4% 83

Chicago, IL 1.1% 68

Atlanta, GA 0.7% 45


14


METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: CHARLOTTE, NC




Raleigh-Durham, NC 2.3% 213



Atlanta, GA 1.5% 144

Boston, MA 1.5% 144




METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: CINCINNATI, OH



Dayton, OH 2.7% 140

Columbus, OH 2.6% 135


Chicago, IL 1.7% 89



Boston, MA 1.3% 66


Atlanta, GA 1.1% 58

METRO OF JOB CANDIDATE: CLEVELAND, OH


Akron, OH 4.8% 224


Columbus, OH 2.4% 114





Seattle, WA 1.2% 58


Cincinnati, OH 0.8% 37


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 pleas-

ant 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.

For example, in the fast-growing tech hub of San Francis-

co, 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.

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 insti-

tutions like the University of Maryland.

Taken together, these patterns in real-time job appli-

cations 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 geogra-

phy of the nation is clearly apparent in online job applica-

tions data from Glassdoor.

16


Table 4. Companies Attracting the Most Metro Movers in Top Cities

DESTINATION METRO: SAN FRANCISCO, CA 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 188International Business Machines Corporation

169

DESTINATION METRO: NEW YORK CITY, NY DESTINATION METRO: LOS ANGELES, CA





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

109Sony Computer

Entertainment America101

NBC Universal, Inc. 107 CyberCoders, Inc. 96

McKinsey & Company, Inc. 103International Business Machines Corporation

92

Google Inc. 95 University of California 92

Oscar Insurance Corporation 94 Snap, Inc. 87


17


DESTINATION METRO: WASHINGTON, D.C. DESTINATION METRO: CHICAGO, IL





Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. 139 Motorola Solutions, Inc. 93


130 Citadel Securities LLC 66

Latitude Inc. 72 TransUnion LLC 58

Ecosystems 70International Business Machines Corporation

51

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

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 41

DESTINATION METRO: BOSTON, MA DESTINATION METRO: SEATTLE, WA





Bose Corporation 95 Amazon.com, Inc. 536

Massachusetts General Hospital

85 Microsoft Corporation 209


80 T-Mobile USA, Inc. 99

Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated

76 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.

56 Starbucks Corporation 63

The Boston Consulting Group Inc.

49 Vulcan Inc. 60


18


DESTINATION METRO: DALLAS-FORT WORTH, TX DESTINATION METRO: AUSTIN, TX





AMR Corporation 115International Business Machines Corporation

103

Lockheed Martin Corporation

99 Dell Inc. 93

The Allstate Corporation 92The University of Texas

at Austin84


80 PayPal, Inc. 72

Texas Instruments Incorporated

64 Silicon Laboratories Inc. 60

Baylor Scott & White Health 48 Facebook, Inc. 45

University of Texas South-western Medical Center

42 Amazon.com, Inc. 44

Bank of America Corporation

39 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 2018. 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 devel-

oper (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.

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 535 391 73.1%

Oracle Database Administrator 532 367 69.0%

ATG Developer 530 358 67.5%

Industrial Engineer 607 376 61.9%

Salesforce Developer 760 454 59.7%

Flight Attendant 750 447 59.6%

Data Engineer 2,604 1,543 59.3%

Structural Engineer 500 296 59.2%

Mobile Developer 797 469 58.8%

Process Engineer 1,214 702 57.8%

Data Scientist 7,808 4,469 57.2%

Database Administrator 960 549 57.2%

Software Engineer 28,934 16,495 57.0%

Devops Engineer 1,295 727 56.1%

ASIC Physical Design Engineer 574 313 54.5%

Design Engineer 713 385 54.0%

Software Development Engineer 1,679 900 53.6%

Actuarial Analyst 530 276 52.1%

UX Researcher 687 351 51.1%

Network Engineer 2,149 1,092 50.8%

Mechanical Engineer 3,905 1,965 50.3%

Research Scientist 1,099 546 49.7%

Manufacturing Engineer 1,104 546 49.5%

Software Developer 5,134 2,519 49.1%

SQL Developer 519 255 49.1%


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).

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 dis-

persed 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 avail-

able close to home.

The irony of these “metro stayer” positions is that be-

cause 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 967 84 8.7%

Retail Representative 988 99 10.0%

Delivery Driver 927 93 10.0%

Receptionist 4,707 477 10.1%

Retail Team Member 3,218 332 10.3%

Front Desk Agent 721 74 10.3%

Barista 1,263 132 10.5%

Bank Teller 1,191 125 10.5%

Forklift Operator 571 60 10.5%

Order Selector 990 106 10.7%

Server 1,468 158 10.8%

Host 795 86 10.8%

Clerk 650 70 10.8%

Customer Service Representative 4,368 486 11.1%

Cashier 3,480 388 11.1%

File Clerk 713 80 11.2%

Housekeeper 847 96 11.3%

Accounts Receivable 799 92 11.5%

Accounting Clerk 737 85 11.5%

Cook 553 64 11.6%

Accounts Payable 839 100 11.9%

Material Handler 787 94 11.9%

Store Manager 2,576 308 12.0%

Accounts Payable Specialist 674 81 12.0%

Office Assistant 1,176 142 12.1%


7. Glassdoor “Local Pay Reports,” February 2018 (accessed March 23, 2018). Available online at www.glassdoor.com/research/local-pay-reports/.

https://www.glassdoor.com/research/local-pay-reports/

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

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.

Percentage of Applications Moving to New Metro

(each point represents one job title)

Metro Movers Earn Higher Pay

Med

ian

Bas

e P

ay

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, 2018. 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) 35,999 0.36 0.48 0 1

Job Salary 35,999 $87,907 $38,234 $14,528 $295,757

Glassdoor Rating 35,999 3.7 0.6 1 5

Gender (Male = 1) 35,999 0.59 0.49 0 1

Age 35,999 33.0 9.7 19 65

High School 35,999 0.06 0.24 0 1

Associate's Degree 35,999 0.01 0.12 0 1

Bachelor's Degree 35,999 0.6 0.49 0 1

Master's Degree 35,999 0.25 0.43 0 1

Ph.D. 35,999 0.00 0.06 0 1

Professional Degree (JD, MD, MBA)

35,999 0.02 0.12 0 1


23


Using the data in Table 7, we estimated the following linear probability model via ordinary least squares (OLS),

Prob(Moverij = 1) =ß

0+ ß

1Salary

ij+ß

2Culture

ij+ß

3Controls

ij+αi+γj+εij

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 percent-

age points more likely to apply to jobs in another

metro than women. That suggests employers look-

ing 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.

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 ControlsModel (2)

Job Title ControlsModel (3) Job Title and

Metro Controls

Median Salary of Job (x $10,000) 0.011*** -0.002 0.004***

(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 -0.106*** -0.066*** -0.070***

(0.00) (0.00) (0.00)

Associate’s Degree -0.025 -0.044** -0.074***

(0.02) (0.02) (0.02)

Bachelor’s Degree 0.018* -0.005 -0.013

(0.01) (0.01) (0.01)

Master's Degree 0.126*** 0.067*** 0.049***

(0.01) (0.01) (0.01)

Ph.D. 0.071* -0.02 -0.026

(0.04) (0.05) (0.05)

Professional Degree (JD, MD, MBA) -0.03 -0.01 -0.02

(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 R2 0.08 0.15 0.19

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/)

100 Shoreline Hwy, Mill Valley, CA 94941 glassdoor.com/research | Email: [email protected]

Copyright © 2008–2018, Glassdoor, Inc. “Glassdoor” and logo are proprietary trademarks of Glassdoor, Inc.

8. See for example, “What Matters More to Your Workforce than Money,” (January 2017) by Andrew Chamberlain. Harvard Business Review. Available at https://hbr.org/2017/01/what-matters-more-to-your-workforce-than-money.

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 low-

er-skilled roles in retail, food services and some blue-

collar 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 2018.

http://glassdoor.com/research

mailto:economics%40glassdoor.com?subject=

https://hbr.org/2017/01/what-matters-more-to-your-workforce-than-money

research report may 2018 metro movers: where are … · 41 percent female, with an average age of...

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