Common Impediments To Worker Mobility
In the United States:
- Minimum Wage laws that prevent unskilled workers, willing to work below minimum, from entering workforce.
- Absence of "right to work" laws / presence of forced unionization
- Inadequate infrastructure and housing to accommodate fast moving changes in labor demand
- Binding ties to a geographic location. e.g.: a worker's inability to sell his home for a price that covers his existing mortgage
- A worker's lack of education and/or access to education.
- Government mandates on industry labor standards. e.g.: license requirements to cut hair or give a massage.
- Unemployment benefits that disincentivize workers from accepting employment at market clearing wage rates.
In the Asia-Pacific Region, some common reasons workers are immobile include:
- national and regional differences in the qualifications necessary for different jobs
- a lack of standards for skills and vocations
- discrimination based on citizenship or national origin
Other impediments to worker mobility:
- discrimination based on social class
- systems of economics and property rights that impede workers.
Read more about this topic: Labor Mobility
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