U.S. companies have sharply slowed the pace at which they are transferring workers domestically, a new survey shows, possibly due to a scale back in hiring and expansion plans.
After employee-transfer volume increased 10 percent in 2006, employers project just a 2 percent increase in transfer volume for 2007, according to Worldwide ERC, whose initials stand for Employee Relocation Council.
Worldwide ERC surveyed companies between March and April, and published poll results last month in its newsletter Mobility.
Employee transfers have increased annually since 2002, keeping pace with the current business cycle, particularly between 2004 and 2005 when such moves jumped 20 percent.
At last count, U.S. employers assisted their employees in some 450,000 moves domestically, along with 394,000 to other countries.
Those figures do not include military and government transfers. Washington, D.C., is by far the most active market in the United States for employee transfers with some 45,000 annually according to the American Moving and Storage Association, which collects its data from major moving lines. Despite its vast array of global conglomerates, the metropolitan New York City market barely cracks the top 10 markets nationally for annual worker transfers.
A July survey by Danbury, Conn., relocation company Cartus Corp. showed that companies expect China to overtake Canada as the top destination overseas for employee transfers after 2009.
Employers projected that transfer volume will increase this year 5 percent for existing employees, but will decline 2 percent for new personnel, according to Worldwide ERC. That compares with a 7 percent transfer rate for existing employees last year, and an 18 percent rate for new hires.
The past few years, about two-thirds of all moves involve existing employees.
Brick-and-mortar companies accounted for the majority of job transfers last year, with 27 percent of moves involving retail, hospitality and distribution companies. Professional services companies, which are able to travel to client sites, accounted for just 3 percent of employee transfers, while financial institutions had 6 percent of the total.
Companies reversed in 2006 a recent trend of relocating more renters than homeowners, with homeowners constituting 54 percent of all moves last year.
That is a significant shift ”“ it costs companies $62,000 on average to move an existing employee who is a homeowner, versus $55,000 for a new hire, survey respondents told Worldwide ERC. Current employees who rent their residences cost $18,000 to relocate, versus $16,000 for a new hire who rents.
Employers are giving their workers two weeks to accept an offer of a transfer, on average, and one month after that to report to work at their new location.
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