US Domestic Volume Trends

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same
If one word could be used to describe the outlook that corporate relocation professionals have for 2010 it would be stability. This is a marked difference over 2009 which saw employers decrease hiring budgets by 23%[1] and a housing market which saw decreases by 18% from the previous year [2].

Overwhelmingly, survey results indicate that US Domestic relocation volume will either stay the same as last year or even increase over the previous year. Is it possible that the bottom of this down economy has been reached? Of the respondents to the survey 62% indicated that that there will neither be an increase or a decrease over the volume that they had last year. However, 19% of respondents indicated that there will be an increase of volume in 2010 as opposed to just 5% saying there will be a decrease in volume over the same period of time. This makes sense because since November of last year hiring has slowly been on the rise [3].

Another question on the survey asked about how the respondents would like to improve their current relocation program in 2010, the highest amount chose to “Try to reduce the number of exceptions to policy” at 37%, while the second highest number of respondents chose “Create more relocation training for internal hiring managers and or recruiters” at 26%. To reduce the number of exceptions to policy Paragon recommends reassessing the current policies which are available to the transferring employees to see if current best practices could be aligned more effectively with the current needs of the employees moving. Often small changes to a relocation program can bring about a tremendous reduction of exceptions which saves money in the end.

In conclusion, the stabilization of volume in 2010 is a welcome sign of relief that perhaps the economy will be better this year than last year. Hopefully these are early signs that companies will begin hiring again and that the housing market will begin to achieve some of the value that it has lost since 2007, which will make selling transferee’s homes a much smoother process for corporations and employees.

[1] http://www.careerbuilder.com/Article/CB-1104-Getting-Hired-7-Hiring-Trends-to-Follow-in-2009/?ArticleID=1104&cbRecursionCnt=1&cbsid=5a1f070a93fa4da38b9943e26bb46437-318006940-KA-5&ns_siteid=ns_us_g_hiring_percentage_dec_
[2] http://www.marketwatch.com/story/home-prices-off-record-18-in-past-year-case-shiller-says
[3] http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6062LW20100112

Survey Results
Does your corporation project a change in its relocation volume from 2009 to 2010?

Do you anticipate a change in the number of relocating employees who are offered homesale benefits in 2010 vs. 2009?

Will your corporation alter relocation benefits offered to New Hires in 2010 based on the current economic climate?

If you could improve the overall relocation process at your company in 2010, would you:

In 2010 what Domestic move types do you expect to have the highest volume for your corporation?

Survey Participation
The data represents results from corporate relocation professionals from organizations of the following size: