Residential mobility, housing tenure and the labour market in Britain

Using data for 1991 to 1997 from the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS), this research investigates the reasons to move house and the extent and determinants of house moves. In particular, we examine the relationships between labour market dynamics and residential mobility. Panel data allow the study of the sequence of household moves and individual labour market status changes, enabling unique analysis of the relationship between residential and job mobility. Our findings suggest that the unemployed are more likely to move than employees. This supports the classical economic hypothesis that individuals move to escape unemployment, and suggests that the unemployed are not immobile. A desire to move motivated by employment reasons has the single largest positive impact on the probability of moving between regions.