The United States’ 99 largest metro areas have accounted for a disproportionate share of unemployment in the three years since the recession, and the bulk of the increases occurred in jurisdictions outside the urban core, concludes a new Brookings Institution study, “The Landscape of Recession.”
According to Brookings data, the Washington and Richmond metro areas are exemplars of that trend — the suburban share of unemployment growth is 75% or more in both metro areas. The Hampton Roads metro area, where suburban unemployment is less than 50%, is an exception. (Click on map to view more legible image.)
Conclude the authors: “the sheer magnitude of increases in the suburbs over the recession and post-recession period raises questions about the capacity and infrastructure to connect people to jobs and social services. As public officials expend time, money, and effort on job creation strategies, they must also keep in mind job connection strategies like public transportation, education, and social service provision as a new geography of poverty emerges. Indeed, almost a third of the nation’s poor now live in large metropolitan suburbs.”
