As the geographic mobility of talent is a component of many organizations’ talent strategy, it is important to understand the extent to which people are actually willing to move and are geographically flexible. This 42-page report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research explores the research literature and analyzes long-term trends in the data to describe patterns in women‘s and men‘s geographic mobility, particularly for work. The report includes several insights such as 1) geographic mobility has fallen for workers from all demographic groups and regions and 2) decline in mobility is not due to changes in the composition of the workforce, 3) changes in parental or marital status does not explain the decline in mobility. With declines in geographic mobility, organizations should look at their talent strategies to determine the extent to which these strategies should be modified due to this trend. The report also identifies responses that may help workers overcome mobility constraints, both by making it easier and more attractive for workers to move to good jobs and by reducing the need for geographic mobility through policies and the use of technological solutions.
