“Americans have traditionally moved to find jobs. But with a growing reluctance by workers to relocate, some companies have decided to move closer to potential hires. Firms are expanding to cities with a bounty of underemployed, retrieving men and women from freelance gigs, manual labor and part-time jobs with duties that, one worker said, required only a heartbeat to perform.

With the national jobless rate near a 16-year low, these pockets of underemployment are a wellspring for companies that recognize most new hires already have jobs but can be poached with better pay and room for advancement. That’s preferable to competing for higher-priced workers at home.

Mark Williams, the chairman of the board for the Site Selectors Guild, a trade association for firms that help companies scout new locations, said a supply of underemployed workers has joined transportation access and the cost of doing business as factors in deciding where to open plants and offices.”

Read the full article here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-new-corporate-recruitment-pool-workers-in-dead-end-jobs-1505080840