Yeah it's probably the biggest reason. I have kids on school so cant really relocate but if I could I would already be a 12. Its a lot easier to move up from 12 to 15 if you are willing to relocate...and places with more agencies. But I've also seen a lot of virtual 12 to 15 jobs pop up in the last 3 years or so. A lot of the virtual jobs are you work from home and travel to the jobs base of operations every few months. I recently did a 120 day gs 12 detail working from home on share point and website behind the scenes stuff for grantees and all of our meetings were virtual and using Skype video. When you are in usajobs search virtual in the search bar and sort my date opened. Look for places that say "multiple locations". Those are mostly going to be your virtual jobs.

Crazy is working from home though I was working 7am to 8pm sometimes just because it was actually easier to just knock stuff out at home. My work shift is 8 hrs so I found myself working way more and I wasnt getting paid for it and you dont get side tracked my office coworkers.