Changing Jobs and Changing Houses: Mobility Outcomes of Employment Transitions

Abstract

The life‐course approach to residential mobility and migration recognizes a central role for a variety of demographic and economic triggers in the mobility process. Having a child, getting married, separated, or divorced, have all been identified as triggers that generate residential relocations. It is obvious that a job change can also be viewed as a stimulus for residential relocation, although until now the interconnection has been evaluated mainly for long‐distance migratory moves rather than for its effects on residential mobility. In this analysis we use the Panel Study of Income Dynamics to test the association between employment changes and residential relocation. We examine both the occurrence and the timing of residential moves triggered by employment transitions. We show that job changes increase the likelihood of residential relocation in the aggregate and for singles when we hold other & “triggers” constant. The results of the analysis of the timing of job changes and residential relocations indicate that temporal differences exist between households types. Overall, the results establish that job change is an important triggering process in residential relocation and emphasizes the interconnected nature of life‐course events.