I can't speak for the rest of the world, but it is interesting to compare America to Holland (and the rest of Europe) in the area of mobility. In America, we take it for granted that one would move to get a better job, and in the Silicon Valley where I am from, if you work the same job for more than 3-5 years people start to look at you funny. Also, Americans are prone to constant moving. Everyone has a car, and there is little to hold one back from moving to a different state.

Overall, people in Europe don't quit a job once they get it. All employment is guaranteed by contract. For example, in Holland there is a two month waiting period, a sort of probation. During that time the employer can fire the employee and the employee can quit, with no consequences.

After the two month probationary period is over, if everything has worked out OK, the employer then offers the employee a work contract. These contracts are typically for a fixed period of one year, and cover every employee from office workers to deli clerks to bathroom attendants. Once the contract has begun, the employer can not fire the employee without a very good reason, like theft or on the job violence. You cannot be fired from your job in Holland just for being mediocre.

Contrast this with the American landscape. Aside from those in high management and those in unions, the majority of workers in the US work at will, as explained at the footnote. When I was working towards getting a job in the Dutch computer industry, I was told that my employment contract would be for an indefinite period, which is basically an offer of lifetime employment. They actually used the words, "lifetime employment" when describing the job.

As an American, I was simultaneously amazed and repulsed by the idea. Can you imagine working for the same company for a lifetime? I know this used to be the idea here 20 or more years ago, but our business climate is now so chaotic that people would sooner expect social security to be there in 2040 than expect to work the same job for a lifetime.

So because people don't look to constantly change their career and employer, there is also much less moving around from house to house. People in Europe settle down and stay put much more than Americans.

With EC and EU integration, this will change slowly as more and more people leave their home country in search of work elsewhere. For years, any citizen of an EU country can go to any other EU country and work. There is also a good deal of illegal immigrants, especially in Amsterdam. Many people just drop into the town and never end up going anywhere else. They find a job working as a waiter for cash, or maybe they are hawking rooms for a dormitory or bed-and-breakfast in return for a free room for themselves.

In fact, most workers in America are working according to at will employment. Whether they signed such an agreement or not, the Supreme Court decided in the 1890's that for America's fledgling manufacturing industry to be profitable, the business owners needed to be able to hire and fire at will, that is to say at their own discretion according to the number of workers needed on a day by day basis. This shows how America is a land with no securtiy blanket, while European people have more power in labor-management relations. We have different perpectives about whether someone must pay their own way or depend paritally or fully on the government.