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Labour Mobility and the Changing Housing Market

School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, Rodney Lodge, Grange Road, Bristol, BS8 4EA, UK

Labour mobility as a concept is not as straightforward as it first appears and has different meanings in different contexts. Mobility as a policy concern arose in Britain in the 1980s and assumed a particular form. It was often confined to a discussion of geographical movement between labour markets and the constraints imposed on potential job-seekers by their tenure position. Mobility can indeed be expressed in this way, but this captures only one aspect of job movement. At other times there are concerns with industrial and occupational mobility and notions such as job changing, labour turnover and flows also feature in employment policy discussions. This article raises the question as to whether mobility propensity is an attribute of the individual or the post that the employee might have or seek. The analysis offered here suggests the latter and accordingly an alternative explanation of labour and housing market interactions is provided. The article is written in five parts. It begins by critically assessing the neoclassical contribution to the discussion, followed by a brief review of the mobility debates over the last 50 years. It goes on to examine the involvement of employers in the housing market and studies the interaction of housing and labour markets in different phases of the business cycle. In conclusion, it is suggested that labour mobility is a structured opportunity determined by the level of employer assistance, the transferability of skills and qualifications, and the development of internal labour markets.

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