Migration of boom-town construction workers: the development of an analytic framework

High turnover and migration among boom-town construction workers seriously compounds the problems of rapid growth in nearby communities and is costly to industry. Yet, few socioeconomic studies have examined this common problem in a comprehensive manner, and many studies simply explain away construction worker migration as a result of wanderlust or pathological transiency. This study is a secondary analysis of the Construction Worker Profile Household Survey and builds on internal migration studies that have found that migration tends to occur when the costs for remaining in the area outweigh the benefits. The findings suggest that, contrary to popular generalisations, wanderlust is not a significant variable for predicting migration (r=0.005). Instead, the five strongest predictor variables were: time in the community (r= –0.48), job security (r= – 0.37), age (r= 0.36), housing integration (r=–0.34), and dissatisfaction with facilities and services (r=0.28). Building on these findings, possible policy options to limit the migration of this group such as regional planning, hiring locals, cross-training and the coordination of sub-contractors are presented.