Americans Cling To Jobs As U.S. Workforce Dynamism Fades

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-06-07/americans-cling-to-jobs-as-u-s-workforce-dynamism-fades.html

After 4 1/2 months of meetings, interviews and hand-holding, personnel recruiter William Rowe thought he had sealed the deal.
The senior executive of a major corporation Rowe had been courting finally agreed to take a top post at a venture capital- backed technology firm in California. Then four days after giving notice, the executive, who is in his 40s, had second thoughts about leaving the security of his company and returned to his old job.

“He decided to go back to the mother ship” and not uproot his family to take a chance on joining a new firm, said Rowe, vice chairman of Pearson Partners International Inc., a search firm in Dallas.

The deepest economic slump since the Great Depression has left its mark on both job seekers and job creators, making them more wary about taking risks in a slowly recovering labor market.

Spooked by the severity of the recession and stuck with underwater home mortgages, Americans are less inclined to leave their jobs and less willing to strike out on their own to build businesses, government data show. Even with swelling profits, companies are holding back on hiring, complaining that they can’t find skilled workers for positions they do have open.