One-half of Canadian workers would consider international assignment: Survey

Canada ranks top 3 in most desired relocation destinations

More employees in Canada — and worldwide — are interested in relocating for a job, according to a recent survey.

In Canada, nearly one-half of workers would consider taking a full-time job in another country for two to three years with a 10 per cent pay increase, found the survey by Ipsos and the Canadian Employee Relocation Council (CERC).

Two in 10 (18 per cent) Canadian workers said it would be very likely for them to do so — up from 10 per cent last year — while three in 10 (28 per cent) said it would be somewhat likely.

One-quarter (27 per cent) are not very likely and two in 10 (26 per cent) said they are not at all likely to accept an international move.

Globally, one-quarter (25 per cent) of employees said they would be very likely. This is up from 19 per cent last year, found the poll of nearly 13,000 employees in 24 countries. Three in 10 (32 per cent) are somewhat likely, one-quarter (24 per cent) are not very likely and two in 10 (19 per cent) said they are not at all likely.

Almost one-half (45 per cent) strongly agree that they could be convinced to take an international assignment “if the incentive package from my employer was right” or “if my employer provides support for my spouse to get a job there, too” (41 per cent.)

Alternatively, one-third (35 per cent) of employees agree “there is nothing my employer could do to convince me to take an international assignment.”

Four in 10 (42 per cent) global employees strongly agree “the country that the foreign assignment would send me to is a major factor in my decision to relocate or not.” For the first time in the annual survey cycle, employees were asked to choose their top countries of possible relocation: the United States (34 per cent), the United Kingdom (22 per cent), Australia (20 per cent), Canada (20 per cent), Switzerland (16 per cent) and Germany (15 per cent).

Those working in the fields of telecommunications and information technology (28 per cent) and construction (28 per cent) are most inclined to say they are very likely to consider the move, followed by those working in the commercial/retail (25 per cent), education (23 per cent) and medical (23 per cent) sectors, found the survey.

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