Moving companies, (in which the military makes up about 20% of the household goods moving market) are on the rise economically and are seeing revenues above average for both August and September.  The coronavirus pandemic halted a majority of their business in the spring of 2020, but now Americans are back on the move.

Moving companies suffered financially when the Department of Defense created and enforced a stop-move order, which took place from March until the end of June. The order was implemented to help stop the spread of coronavirus, but it simultaneously damaged the industry during peak moving season.

Moving companies made around $311 million with DoD in May last year and $422 million in June.  With about half a million moves every summer from the military alone, it is estimated the entire industry lost hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue this year.

Now, the DoD has lifted the stop-move order.  Business is picking back up, but a handful of sanctions remain intact. Only 45% of DoD’s 231 installations are approved for permanent changes of station (PCS) without a waiver. In order to lift restrictions, bases must show a 14-day decline in coronavirus cases and also make sure certain health services are readily available to deal with new infections. This causes the list of bases that are without restrictions to constantly be in flux depending on localized positive COVID-19 numbers.

As of today, nearly 56,000 people in the military or DoD-related have tested positive for coronavirus.  The unorthodox spike in migration patterns amongst the American population are currently keeping revenues up for moving companies.  Although its lifespan is uncertain, the rise in business is at least temporarily providing federal employees a desperately needed burst of work and revenue they have been waiting for.