Survey: Almost half of workers would move for a job without a promotion or pay raise

For some people, the place they’re living right now feels like home, and they may never leave it. But another swathe of Americans are willing to relocate if the opportunity presents itself — and the incentive doesn’t even have to be that huge.

A recent survey by real estate investment trust Life Storage found that 43% of respondents were only somewhat attached to their current city, and a majority would consider moving for a job that didn’t include a raise or promotion. Millennials were especially open to the idea, while baby boomers were more hesitant to relocate without motivation from a company.


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Credit: Life Storage

Similarly, millennials said they needed less of a raise to relocate than boomers or Generation X respondents. Overall, 25% of people said they’d need a 20% raise to move for a new opportunity; smaller percentages said they’d move for a lower or higher raise.

Reasons for moving

But while people seem willing to relocate, they don’t want to do so without a job offer in hand. We move for a lot of different reasons — relationships, family, ambitions — and while 32% of Americans said they’d move from their current city to another one for a new job elsewhere, 21% were more interested in relocating because of family, and 24% wanted to live in a dream city.

Credit: Life Storage

That said, a majority of both men and women said they would never move to another city without securing a job first. So though the reason for a move may have nothing to do with career development, work still plays a major role in decisions for most everyone who is wondering whether it’s time to relocate.

Love plays a part as well — though perhaps not as large of one as you might think. 59% of respondents said managing a long distance relationship was scarier than moving to a new city to be with an S.O., but when it came down to it, only 7% said they’d move from their current city to another one for their relationship.

Credit: Life Storage

Overall, people seem to be interested in changing up their status quo. Everyone has their reasons, but a new job is definitely among the priorities of those who are looking to relocate. If you’re among them, it may be time to check out Scottsdale, Arizona, Orlando, Florida, Portland, Maine, or a bunch of other cities with a hot job market in 2019.


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