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U.S. domestic transfers: Relocation statistics
Worldwide ERC® members represent the large majority of organizations that manage significant relocation programs. 2008 U.S. domestic relocation statistics:
- $32 billion is spent annually in the U.S. on corporate relocation (this number is based on Worldwide ERC® figures and IRS statistics, which show 583,900 U.S. tax returns deducted moving expenses)
- $13,548,821 (13.5 million): average annual amount each company spends to transfer its employees within the United States
- 794,000: annual average number of U.S. domestic transfers; about half of those, or 397,000, are generated by Worldwide ERC® members
- Of the 397,000, approximately 1/3 are new hires (131,000) and 2/3 are current employees (266,000)
- Of the 397,000, approximately 54% (214,380) are homeowners and 46% (182,620) are renters
| Costs of U.S. domestic transfers: |
| Current Employee Homeowner
|
$62,185 |
| New Hire Home Owner |
$55,165 |
| Current Employee Renter |
$18,365 |
| New Hire Renter |
$16,177 |
U.S. domestic transfers: Cost of shipping household goods
The average costs to ship a relocated employee’s household goods in 2006 was $10,342. As can be seen below, cost averages for previous years hover around $10,000 per employee who receives such assistance.
2006 - $10,342
2005 - $9,514
2004 - $10,387
2003 - $9,745
2002 - $9,658
These costs vary of course by family size (bigger families typically have more household goods to move) and homeowner status (homeowners typically have more household goods vs. renters).
U.S. domestic transfers: Number of days for moving within the U.S.
- On average, an employee is allowed 15 days to decide to accept/reject a transfer
- Once an employee accepts a transfer opportunity, an employee has, on average, 31 days to move to the new job location
U.S. domestic transfers: Relocation bonus
- Transferees typically receive some type of miscellaneous allowance that they can spend as they see fit to take care of incidentals they will incur in the new location such as getting new vehicle registrations, utility hook-ups and carpet/drapery installations. This allowance is most often equal to one of the employee’s salary.
U.S. domestic transfers: Companies that buy homes from relocating employees
- Most companies offer to purchase at least some employees’ homes if the employees’ cannot sell the home on their own. To do this, most (about two-thirds) outsource the management of the homesale program. About 5 percent keep it in-house.
- Another 20 percent of organizations reimburse employees’ selling expenses only—they don’t offer to buy the employees’ homes. About 1 in 10 doesn’t provide any type of homesale assistance to employees.
U.S. domestic transfers: Cost per employee for in-state and out-of-state moves
Companies don’t typically look at moving costs based on in-state vs. out-of-state status. Companies move their people wherever their facilities/offices are located or where project work is based. In addition, whether those other offices/project work is in-state or out-of-state, the costs incurred would be similar given the fact the employee’s household goods would still have to be packed and shipped, the employee would have to sell their home and find and purchase a new one (or incur costs of lease breaking and get a new lease with deposits), etc.
International assignments: Costs
There is too much variance in the cost of international assignments to arrive at any kind of “average.” This is because:
- Types of international assignments vary (short term, localized, full expat benefits, hybrid packages, developmental assignment, etc.). Also, there is no one “standard” for the mobility benefits which are attached to different kinds of assignments.
- Since there are a large number of departure and destination combinations on a global basis, the cost of taxes can vary widely.
- It is impossible to arrive at other “average” costs on a global basis because of the wide disparity, for instance in the cost of schooling, housing, cost of living, cost of currency, etc. from one location to another around the world.
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