Written by The present government has announced that it hopes to encourage people to relocate to regions of the UK where there are more jobs. The idea is to alleviate the mis-match between high unemployment in certain regions, and unfilled vacancies in more prosperous parts. But aside from the fact that there is no area of the UK with zero joblessness, there are serious issues concerning whether relocating is desirable. Moreover, given that we know have Internet business, giving people the chance to work from home in online jobs, why does anyone have to experience the trauma of relocating just to escape unemployment?
Relocating to another area may be more straightforward for certain people than for others. Maybe younger people, without children and not home owners, can more easily move anywhere in the UK or overseas to look for work. Unfortunately in England, we have a tradition that believes people should invest in property. Having purchased a house, it becomes a lot harder to sell up and move somewhere else. There is the problem of putting the house up for sale, and the notorious chains, with buyers pulling out at the last minute due to unpredictable causes. In addition you have the difficulty of finding a home in the place you are moving to. Furthermore, for people moving from high unemployment areas to economically better off areas, they may meet the problem that house prices are higher, requiring them to spend more of their income to take out a much higher mortgage.
This is to say nothing of the personal impact of relocation; saying goodbye to your friends and having to establish a new circle of friends in a new town or city. And for those who have children, there will be bad effects for them, too. Their education suffer disruption, and they will be forced to leave their friends and make new friends in an unfamiliar place. People have the worry of looking for alternative schooling in the new city that is suitable. The schools may not offer all the same courses that your children were taking beforehand.
Employers in certain lines of work may expect people to move to different locations. I remember an acquaintance who worked as a bank manager, who was requested to move to to a remote rural community in Wales. His other half did not like the idea, and he turned down the posting. As a result, he was never offered any form of promotion.
But if people are unable to get a job in the area they live, what is the alternative to relocating? Internet business has made it, to a large extent, unimportant what part of the country you are in. For example, does it make any difference what city or county I was in when I wrote this article, or where the readers of the article or this website are to be found? I am able to work from home, in any line of work somebody is paying me to do, thus effectively a new generation of online jobs has developed, allowing businesses to have dealings with their clientele via the Web.
Therefore, perhaps the way to deal with joblessness is not for the unemployed to ‘get on their bike’ as the famous saying goes, but to get onto the Internet, and seek out the online jobs that will enable them to work from home. Some may require an initial investment, in training or capital. But in comparison, what are the costs of buying and selling property – in searching for a home, surveys, legal fees, and so on? They will probably take up far more of your cash, and the stress involved is possibly even greater.
For people who genuinely wish to relocate to a different area of the UK for personal or family reasons, obviously they will still need to do so. However with the openings to be had in Internet business, it is no longer necessary to relocate merely to look for work.
