US – Suburban inadequate transit worsens unemployment

I took a look at the study report, which was published earlier this year by the Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies. More specifically, the research looked at a sample of 247,000 Midwestern lower-income “workers who have experienced an involuntary job displacement” because of mass layoffs, and how long they remained unemployed. The researchers also used local travel data to model commute times by both car and transit to job centers from neighborhoods where the displaced workers’ residences were located. They found a significant relationship between the displaced workers’ relative accessibility to job centers and the duration of unemployment.

The researchers considered how long the job search took for three categories of new jobs: any job; a job with 75 percent of previous job earnings; and a job with 90 percent of previous job earnings. The study was exceptionally well-controlled and complex, eliminating factors that could contaminate the results. Job-seekers at the 25th percentile of the authors’ accessibility index were found to take 7 percent longer to find a job that replaces at least 90 percent of their previous earnings than those at the 75th percentile. (Significant disadvantages for unemployed workers with relatively poor accessibility were also found with respect to all jobs and jobs replacing 75 percent of previous earnings.)

Certain segments of the population were found to be particularly disadvantaged by poor accessibility. In the authors’ words:

“Our results support the spatial mismatch hypothesis. We find that better job accessibility significantly decreases the duration of joblessness among lower-paid displaced workers … While job accessibility is only one of many factors affecting job search outcomes, it appears to play an especially important role for blacks, who have long been a focus of this research area. We find that blacks are approximately 71, 15, and 35 percent more sensitive to job accessibility than white job seekers for these three hiring measures respectively. We also find that job accessibility is especially important for females and older workers.”

Put another way, the more convenient an unemployed workers’ home was to job centers, the less time it took to find an acceptable new job. The implied admonition to land use planners is to encourage more affordable residential development near job centers and within walking distance of public transit that can reach job centers.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at Transportation Difficulties and Economic Hardship | Sustainable Cities Collective.