With U.S. unemployment still high and labor participation at record lows, the nation’s job market faces a long road to full recovery. But worker mobility is picking up as housing recovers, giving economists reason to believe that the underpinnings of a stronger market are taking hold.<\/p>\n
Mobility, or workers’ willingness to pull up stakes and move for a new job, advanced in recent years. Some 7.1 million Americans moved across state lines last year, according to the Census Bureau’s latest American Community Survey (ACS), released in September. That is still well below the nearly 8 million pace the country enjoyed before the 2007-08 recession, but it is up considerably from the 2010 trough of 6.7 million.<\/p>\n
“It’s a very good signal to see people moving,” said Ernest Goss, a Creighton University economist.<\/p>\n