Stuck-in-place millennials hold back recovery in labor, housing markets
William Frey, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington has said that the slow recovery of the labor market and the stagnation of the housing market may be due to millennials inability or unwillingness to relocate. Frey analyzed the U.S. Census Bureau claims to back up his assertions. According to the data, younger Americans have typically moved almost twice as often as other age categories, but in recent years that gap has narrowed significantly. In 2013, only 20.2% of Americans aged 25 ? 34 had moved twice or more, the lowest percent since 1947. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York cites a strong correlation between the average indebtedness due to student loans. Kenneth Johnson of the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire says that the mobility and migration of the American worker, especially young people, has always been a key benefit of the U.S. labor system, it has helped us seize on opportunities that required new or different occupational demands quicker than competitor countries.
See "Stuck-in-place millennials hold back recovery in labor, housing markets", Crain's Detroit Business, May 12, 2014