There are fewer jobs located near metro area workers, according to a study released Tuesday that measured employment patterns since 2000.
Jobs within the “typical commuting distance” for workers in major metro areas dropped 7% overall between 2000 and 2012, found a report by the Brookings Institution citing Census Bureau data. Lower-income and minority workers saw the number of nearby jobs fall more than their middle-class and white counterparts.
From the report:
As employment suburbanized, the number of jobs near both the typical city and suburban resident fell. Suburban residents saw the number of jobs within a typical commute distance drop by 7 percent, more than twice the decline experienced by the typical city resident (3 percent). In all, 32.7 million city residents lived in neighborhoods with declining proximity to jobs compared to 59.4 million suburban residents.
The hardest-hit areas have been Ohio’s Cleveland-Elyria and Michigan’s Detroit-Warren-Dearborn metropolitan areas, where the number of jobs near a typical resident dropped about 26% each. Meanwhile, Texas’ McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area saw the number of nearby jobs up nearly 58%.
“When people live near their jobs, they’re more likely to be employed and the length of time they spend looking for jobs tends to be shorter,” Natalie Holmes, a senior research assistant at the Brookings Institution, told Bloomberg. “It’s great that we’re continuing to recover jobs, but where jobs are located matters.”