Education, Job Openings, and Unemployment in Metropolitan America

Despite the wide variation in economic health across the country, economic policies in Washington are generally debated and formulated as if all regions had the same economic experience. This report seeks to shed light on marked differences in job markets as noted in variables of job openings, educational requirements of job openings, education gap for metropolitan areas, predicted industry job growth, and housing market dynamics. Trends and relationships between variables are explored (p.2). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

Several key findings were noted: • "Advertised job openings in large metropolitan areas require more education than all existing jobs and more education than the average adult has attained; • Metro areas vary considerably in the level of education required by job openings posted online; • Unemployment rates are 2 percentage points higher in large metro areas with a shortage of educated workers relative to demand, and have been consistently higher since before the recession; • Declines in industry demand and housing prices explain most of the recent cyclical increases in metropolitan unemployement rates, but education gaps explain most of the structural level of metropolitan unemployment over the past few years and; • Metro areas with higher education gaps have experienced lower rates of job creation and job openings over the past few years" (p.1). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2012
• Author(s): Rothwell, Jonathan
• Organizational Author(s): Metropolitan Policy Program at The Brookings Institution
• Funding Source: Brookings Institution, Ford Foundation, Annie E. Casey Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, George Gund Foundation
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Wesley Peterson
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies