TheLadders Finds One-Third of Job Seekers Attempt Relocation

NEW YORK, May 19, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Home may be where the heart is, but it's not always where the jobs are. With the U.S. climbing out of its economic rut, TheLadders decided to take a look at where people most often moved to work in a better economic climate. After analyzing where, and how often, job seekers in its 6-million-member database apply for jobs outside their current location, TheLadders' data team found substantial results.

Nationwide, 35 percent of applications were from job seekers applying to positions outside their current location, or "DMA" (Designated Market Area). As expected, job seekers from smaller DMAs looked for out-of-town opportunities the most, and New York appeared to be the most reliable relocation DMA. However, an interesting phenomenon also came to light: Not far behind the bright lights and big cities of New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, came Dallas, Atlanta and Houston as the places job seekers most wanted to relocate to. The preference to move to these cities was even higher than larger DMAs such as Chicago, Boston and Washington D.C.

The emergence of these smaller DMAs as application hot spots is likely attributed to their emergence as hotbeds for the tech, marketing and sales industries.

"People go where the jobs are, and by diving deeper into our data and analyzing job application behavior, we're able to see which cities are becoming leaders in their respective industries," said Shankar Mishra, Vice President of Data Science and Analytics at TheLadders. "Through this analysis we can now provide job seekers with better insight into locations with the most relevant jobs."

Additional information about TheLadders' relocation study, including which cities are emerging as hubs for which professional industries can be found at TheLadders Blog.

On an ongoing basis, TheLadders conducts primary user-experience research and analyzes quantitative data provided by its nearly 6 million members to educate the company about current behavioral trends in the job-search process. TheLadders uses this research to improve the customer experience and provide expert advice to the marketplace.

About TheLadders
With over 6 million members, TheLadders is the premier mobile career network, committed to finding the right person for the right job since 2003. The only company with a free, mobile-to-mobile career community, TheLadders expanded its services in fall 2011 from job matching for high-earning professionals to all career-driven professionals. In doing so, more than 70,000 employers and recruiters that use TheLadders to source qualified candidates now have access to professionals at all levels. TheLadders is headquartered in New York City. For more information, visit TheLadders Blog and TheLadders.com. Your career is our job™.

SOURCE TheLadders