Market and Direct Allocation of Labor Through Migration.

Recent research suggests that the relationship between migration and labor allocation has changed in two ways: (1) fewer migrations are job-related; and (2) more of the remaining job-related migrations are job transfers instead of purely market-induced mobility. Data from the 1973-77 U.S. Annual Housing Surveys are used to compare characteristics of market-induced and job-transfer migrants. Both forms of migration occur among all income, education, and age groups. However, the income attainment processes for these migrants suggest that relocations are over represented among those primary jobs described by dual labor market theory. Since many of the benefits of primary jobs are age-related, both the increasing frequency of occupational relocations and weakening of the American economic position suggest that the benefits expected by those relocated may be difficult to provide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]