Factors affecting population and workforce mobility in Australia: a future of declining regional affinity?

ABSTRACT An important policy question in Australia is whether regions can attract workforce and population with current policy settings, or whether there are additional social aspects of people’s affinity for regions that may limit migration to regional centres. Using the results of a national household survey, this article tests the extent to which the propensity for internal migration varies between city and metropolitan populations. A series of experiments were used to evaluate the relative importance of factors relevant to relocation or commuting to different types of regional centres, as well as the salary increases required. Only about five percent of the workforce were identified as highly mobile, while more than half of the workforce were not prepared to move no matter what increase in salary is offered. Large salary increases would be required to encourage the “average” employee to move to regional areas, especially from metropolitan locations, with larger salary increases required for long-distance commuting.

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