ATLANTA – The number of Americans moving to new homes has started to increase from a record low, promising a lift to the labor-market recovery as well as housing and consumer spending.

An estimated 12 percent of U.S. residents moved in the year ended March 2012, up from a 63-year low of 11.6 percent the prior year, according to an analysis of unpublished Census Bureau data by the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington-based research organization. About 1.7 percent moved from one state to another, the most in five years, the data show.

Mobility adds flexibility to the labor market, allowing employers to fill positions more easily when skills may be in short supply. A lack of migration the past few years helps to explain why 3.6 million jobs were unfilled in August, 719,000 more than in January 2009, when unemployment last matched September’s 7.8 percent, Labor Department data show.

“Increased mobility will facilitate a quicker improvement in the job market, as the unemployed and underemployed can more easily move to where the jobs are,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pa. “I would expect mobility to steadily improve going forward as job opportunities and house prices increase.”

Migration is an “encouraging trend” for the labor market, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis President James Bullard told reporters Oct. 15 after a speech. It has been a historical strength for the U.S. versus Europe, where moves are hampered by language differences, Bullard said.

“Boom areas” that have benefited from energy production, including Texas and North Dakota, are drawing more job hunters, he added.

Increased hiring and mobility support each other, said Wells Fargo Securities senior economist Mark Vitner in Charlotte, N.C. He forecasts “both job growth and mobility increasing modestly over the next five years, bringing us back to prevailing levels” that existed in 2007 by 2016 or 2017.