/lit/ - Literature

Americans are becoming too poor to move to new areas for work. This is a recent trend that isn't discussed very much. But part of the whole 'labor shortage' issue has to do with potential workers being too poor to relocate.

Most normie/wagie jobs do not offer very much in terms of relocation expenses. And until recently, this simply wasn't a necessity, since workers were expected to have enough savings to cover moving costs, to cover the cost of housing/apartment rentals in their new area for a few months, etc.

But this is simply no longer the case. So many workers are living on such thin margins that they do not have the capital required to relocate to a new region for a new job. This reduces the 'mobility of labor,' which is something that has traditionally been very high in the US. Instead, the new model is more like regional serfdom, in which people get locked into specific areas because they cannot finance a move into a new area.

It's an interesting development. Americans are often (correctly) accused of being rootless wanderers with no real ties to specific communities, but perhaps increasing poverty will force more of them to stay in place. Employers got used to having a highly-mobile, on-demand labor force. They will have to adapt.