Housing tenure, job mobility and unemployment in the UK

Abstract

This article examines the effects of housing tenure on individuals’ job and unemployment durations in the UK. We examine job to job transitions and transitions from unemployment. We take account of whether or not the arrival of a job was synonymous with a non-local residential move, tenure endogeneity and unobserved heterogeneity. We find that home-ownership is a constraint for the employed and public renting is more of a constraint for the unemployed. Employed home-owners have a lower transition into employment with a distant move and unemployed public renters have a lower probability of gaining employment in more distant labour markets.