The rate of gross interstate migration has fallen by about half since the 1990s.

Why is there a decline in geographic mobility in the U.S.? The question has been asked, but no definitive answers have been given. The studies are leading to the possibility of an "overall decline in job-switching. There are about sixty metropolitan areas with an unemployment rate 2% lower than the U.S. rate of 7.6%. There are about fifty metro areas where the unemployment rate is still above 9.6 percent."

"The mix of jobs offered in different parts of America has become more uniform" (homogenisation).

"The plummeting cost of information.Young workers in particular used to have to move to gather information. ... The web makes it vastly easier to study every aspect of a potential new home, ... without moving."

Unemployment checks. "If you are living off unemployment checks in Flint, Mich., you do not have a lot of incentives to move to a stronger labor market, such as Chicago, to look for a job because your housing expenses would double while your check would still reflect the cost of living in Flint." Would a "mobility voucher" as part of unemployment insurance help?