Sectoral Shifts and Occupational Migration in the United States

Abstract

This research is grounded in notions of differential economic restructuring across employment sectors and geographic space, as well as migration selectivity by occupation. A series of unconstrained competing-destinations models were employed to analyze the response by workers in thirteen occupational categories to sectoral employment change, average wages, and distance. As was hypothesized, workers in occupations that require high levels of education and skills are more responsive, in terms of migration, to economic opportunities in alternative labor-market areas. However, the results do not support the hypothesis that highly educated and skilled workers migrate longer distances. Further investigation suggests that opportunities for highly educated and skilled workers may be clustering in relatively few areas that are in relatively close proximity.

Key Words:

• economic restructuring
• internal migration
• labor-market adjustments
• migration selectivity

Notes

^aAll of the corresponding t-values are significant at p<0.01.

^aSignificant at the 0.01 level.

¹The requirement that each LMA have at least 100,000 inhabitants is responsible for the large areal extent of LMAs in the western part of the country. This may have an affect on the results obtained on the distance variable in the unconstrained competing destinations models used in the research. See Tolbert and Sizer (1996) for a review of research applications for LMAs.