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Moving for a job? Be prepared to pay the price
Date: March 7 2010
Source: MSNBC.com
Website: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35689919
If you’re thinking about relocating for a new job, there’s a good chance you may have to cover your own moving costs, even if you’ve got a job offer. When
you search for openings on the major job boards lately, lots of the ads
say: “No relocation assistance is provided.” For those positions that
do offer to pay moving costs, the payments are often capped, sometimes
below $10,000.
With the typical corporate relocation costing
about $60,000 for homeowners and $18,000 for renters, according to
Worldwide ERC, such an expense can cause economic hardship for job
seekers. That is, if you’re lucky enough to even get a job offer when
applying for jobs in other towns, states or countries.
Some
employers aren’t even looking at out-of-town applicants these days
because there are so many great candidates right in their own
backyards, recruitment experts said. Others don’t want to have to deal
with an employee who might not be able to sell their hometo move,
thanks to the dismal housing market.
That’s bad news for job seekers looking to relocate to a region with more job opportunities.
“A
lot of people are landlocked because companies want to pay less, not
more, to bring in new talent,” said Nancy Keene, director at recruiting
firm Stanton Chase. If two candidates have similar credentials, she
added, the local guy or gal is likely to get the gig.
When
the economy is strong, employers sometimes go to great lengths to find
the best talent no matter where they live. Before the recession, that
meant lucrative relocation packages that covered moving expenses,
house-hunting trips, and even money toward selling a house or buying a
new one, especially for executive-level employees.
But now, such perks are being cut just like so many other employee benefits.
Don’t expect any help
An October poll conducted by the Society for Human Resource
Management found that 19 percent of companies had cut employee benefits
in the last six months because of the economy. Among those:
- 17 percent eliminated corporate-relocation programs entirely.
- 25 percent froze corporate-relocation programs.
- 58 percent reduced corporate-relocation programs.
And that means more job seekers who want to move to accept a new position are on their own.
“We
see a huge trend of people moving for jobs but paying for their own
relocation,” said Kimberly Smith, founder of
CorporateHousingByOwner.com and owner of corporate housing company
AvenueWest Corporate Housing. Many of those individuals who are also
homeowners are becoming “accidental landlords,” she said, because they
are forced to rent out their home.
Another
problem is employers who choose not to hire job applicants or relocate
existing workers to other company locations due to the decline in home
values, Smith said.
She
gave the example of one woman who worked for a major bank in Atlanta
who was up for a prime transfer to the company’s London office but
didn’t get the job because she was underwater on her mortgage. The bank
didn’t want to deal with the financial issues related to the employee’s
house, Smith said.
“There are lots of things employers can’t discriminate against you for, but the value of your home they can,” she said.
Industries that have tightened their belts on relocation costs include publishing, manufacturing, some consumer products, banking and finance, said Bill Humphrey with Xonex Relocation, a corporate relocation company.
Midlevel
managers and rank-and-file workers are most likely to have to pay
moving costs out of their own pocket. Workers hired to fill highly
specialized and skilled jobs are still seeing most of their moving
costs covered, he said.
Humphrey
also has seen some companies offer assistance with underwater mortgages
for key executive relocations, but the amount is usually capped at
$10,000 to $20,000.
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