What I find crazy is that there's no work available! What kind of IT is he doing? I think before you look into him moving away for work, look online (seek, careerone, etc) and see what jobs are available or get in touch with local recruitment agencies. DF works in IT and he has never struggled to find a job - on more than one occasion he's quit and within 24 hours has had a new job lined up! Slightly different situation as we live in Adelaide (apparently a lot of companies are moving their IT departments here as everything is cheaper), and obviously depending on the area of IT things could be different, but it still seems very strange to me that there is no work.

Back to your question, personally I wouldn't live away from DF but that's cause we did it last year and we didn't cope. I moved back to Sydney for a job and to help look after my Mum who was in hospital and originally the plan was to stay for 12 months. We saw each other every second weekend and skyped every night but we were both so miserable the whole time. I literally was only every happy every second weekend, and he was very much the same. So it only lasted 6 months.

That said, I have a friend who moved interstate for a job for 18 months and only saw her fiance once every 3 months and they were fine with it. I think it depends on the couple. In the end, you need to do what is right for all of you. While living apart may be hard for awhile, in the long term it might be the best thing for your family.