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Census: Fewer Americans Moving in Tough Times

By John Johnson, Newser Staff

Posted Apr 22, 2009 6:54 PM CDT

(Newser) – The economy is doing a number on Americans' wanderlust. The number of people who switched residences last year dropped to 35.2 million, the lowest since 1962, the New York Times reports. The Census Bureau pegs the nation's mobility rate at 11.9%, down from 13.2% last year and now at a record low since WWII. Moves between states fell the most.

“It does show that the US population, often thought of as the most mobile in the developed world, seems to have been stopped dead in its tracks due a confluence of constraints posed by a tough economic spell,” said one demographer. Among the factors blamed: Fewer jobs to chase and trouble selling houses.

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A home for sale near Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

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The thing that would be of deeper concern is if job-related moves are getting suppressed and workers are not getting re-sorted to the jobs that best use their skills.

- Joseph S. Tracy, research director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York

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