America's Economic Paralysis
For decades, the U.S. economy was defined by its churn: people hopping jobs, families trading up homes, workers moving cross-country for better opportunities. That dynamism is sputtering.
By Austin Payne
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Published 9.4.2025
For decades, the U.S. economy was defined by its churn: people hopping jobs, families trading up homes, workers moving cross-country for better opportunities. That dynamism is sputtering. New data show America is increasingly stuck in place — with real costs for households, companies, and growth. The housing market is relatively frozen for a variety of reasons. Only 7.8% of Americans moved in 2023 — the lowest mobility rate since records began in 1948, and the level barely budged in 2024. Why? Mortgage “golden handcuffs.” More than half of homeowners are locked into rates below 4%, while today’s mortgages hover near 7%. Trading up (or downsizing) often means doubling a monthly payment. The result: existing-home sales sank to their lowest level in nearly 30 years. Families that want more space can’t upgrade, and empty-nesters can’t free up inventory for first-time buyers. The labor market has cooled, too. A Fed measure tracking how often workers move directly from one employer to another shows job-switching has fallen to its weakest pace since the 2008 financial crisis. Back in the late ’90s, about 2.8% of workers would jump to a new employer in any given month. In the 2020s, that figure has averaged just 2.3%. The quits rate — a good proxy for job-switching — is also back down to 2.0%, well below the pandemic highs when workers could name their price. Relocations for work are also rarer than ever: the most recent data from 2023 shows that just 1.6% of job seekers moved for a job, the lowest in data going back to 1986. That makes sense when moving often means giving up cheap mortgages, vested bonuses, or hard-to-replace benefits.
Young workers bear the brunt of this stagnation. This is especially true for recent graduates, who face a higher unemployment rate than the average worker. Research shows those who start out underemployed are 3.5x more likely to still be underemployed a decade later — a trajectory that permanently crimps lifetime earnings. With hiring slowing and half of young grads working in roles that don’t require a degree, the divide between economic “insiders” and “outsiders” is widening. Even for households with stable jobs, overall mobility has eroded. Dual-income couples — now the norm — are less likely to move across state lines, since two careers must be weighed instead of one. That’s compounding the housing and job freezes, and keeping Americans tethered to place.
Why this matters now: Economic dynamism has always been a U.S. strength: people moving to better jobs, better housing, better cities. Today, housing lock-in, cautious job markets, and financial constraints are gumming up those gears. That might not grab daily headlines the way inflation or jobs report revisions do, but it’s arguably a bigger drag on long-run growth.
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