Minneapolis Has Lowest Percentage of Job Seekers Looking to Move Elsewhere

A recent analysis of 668,000 online job applications on Glassdoor found Minneapolis is the nation’s leading city for job seekers who don’t want to move, according to Harvard Business Review.

This is good news for the Twin Cities area as it means it’s retaining workers during times of dwindling talent supplies nationwide. However, it also runs the risk of talent-quality stagnation, given Minneapolis also does not make the top-10 list of cities where job applicants would like to move.

Meanwhile, the study also found three key factors that can help companies rethink how they look at talent nearby and more successfully attract skilled workers from farther away.

First, nearly 72 percent of job applications were to openings within candidates’ own metro areas.

Second, culture matters more than pay. The study found that an employer’s having a one-star-higher overall company rating on Glassdoor (on a 1-5 scale) led to a six-times as large an impact on the odds of attracting job applicants from outside metros as did paying $10,000 more in salary. Good culture means learning and career growth opportunities for employees, establishing clear company values and a mission that connects with a larger social good, and having high-quality senior leadership.

Third, relying heavily on job seekers willing to relocate can impact the diversity of applicant pools in unexpected ways. Men are about 3.3 percentage points more likely to be applying to a job in another metro compared to women. Also, older and more experienced workers are significantly less likely to apply to jobs outside their home metro area.