Education, Job Openings and Unemployment in Metropolitan America
NCPA September 4, 2012
A new paper from the Brookings Institution aims to provide metro, state and national policy makers with a better sense of the specific problems facing metropolitan labor markets, says Jonathan Rothwell, a senior research analyst and associate fellow with the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.
- First, the analysis examines trends in the demand for educated labor and how a gap between education supply and demand is related to unemployment.
- Second, it attempts to distinguish between cyclical and structural effects before turning to an explanation of how an education gap might affect both by limiting job creation.
- It concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for public policy.
Highlights of the study include:
- 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.
- Metro areas with higher education gaps have experienced lower rates of job creation and job openings over the past two years.
---30---
|