Interrelationship of migration and housing in Slovakia

Abstract

Labour mobility is one of the factors that positively influence the balance of the labor market and employment and thus, economic growth. Milton Friedman, in his speech (1968) to the American Economic Association, communicated that the natural rate of unemployment depends on the degree of labor mobility in the economy. In this article we examine the interdependencies between migration and housing in Slovak Republic. Most residents commute to work in Bratislava and Trnava regions and migration between the other regions is not as pronounced. Low migration of population in Slovak Republic is strongly affected by high percentage of private ownership in the housing sector, which is arresting work force trapped in unemployment. In regions of high unemployment it is also high percentage of dwellings owned by households, affecting possibility of employment in other regions, because they have insufficient income to procure reality in the area with availabale work places as there is no sector of rental housing assuch. Based on the forecasts of the house prices development this status in the next 5 years will not change.