Uphill Both Ways: Where Are the Jobs in Metro Detroit?

In the first post of the “Uphill Both Ways” series, we looked at employment of lower-earning residents in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park in communities that have opted out of the SMART public transportation service. We found a spatial mismatch between jobs and transportation service for these lower-earning residents.From that targeted focus, we’ll now broaden our lens to look at the overall employment patterns in Detroit and its suburbs.  As before, we’ll use 2011 data from the Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Program (LEHD) to track the inflows and outflows of workers between the city and the surrounding municipalities. To compare job patterns in Detroit and the metro region, we’ve divided workers in these areas into two categories – Detroit and outside Detroit.