Where do people travel to when they go to work? What types of workers are fortunate enough to live near their places of employment? Examining job flows lets us see what parts of our region “import” workers, and what areas “export” them. This can provide insights as to where certain sectors are concentrated, where higher wage jobs are located, and where we might need additional affordable workforce housing, just to name a few.
We use the Origin-Destination files from Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) data[1] to help answer these questions. The visualization tool allows comparison between different age, industry, or wage categories as well as for overall totals for any of the 52 Superdistricts in the Atlanta Regional Commission’s 11-County region.[2]
For example, this view shows us that Clayton County’s two northern four Superdistricts (Airport and NE Clayton) are net job importers, while Riverdale and S Clayton are net worker exporters. Rather few of Clayton County’s workers both live and work in the same Superdistrict. This is especially true of the Airport Superdistrict, which also has relatively few residents.
Figure 1: Job Flows : Superdistrict Importers and Exporters (Source: Census LEHD OD Data; ARC Research & Analytics)
Let’s dive a bit deeper to look at workers by sector. Figure 2 shows us (and no surprise!) that the bulk of the jobs in the Airport Superdistrict, especially the ones for which workers travel into the area, fall into the “Trade, Transportation, and Utilities” sector.
Figure 2: Job Flows : Superdistrict Workers by Sector (Source: Census LEHD OD Data; ARC Research & Analytics)
Looking at job flows by earnings reveals other patterns. For example, one can see in Figure 3 below that data for the NW DeKalb Superdistrict suggest this area needs additional affordable housing for workers in the low and moderate earnings categories–as this area is a major importer of such workers.
Figure 3: Job Flows: Earnings (Source: Census LEHD OD Data; ARC Research & Analytics)
These examples above just scratch the surface! Explore the data here: https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/moshe.haspel/viz/JobFlowsxSuperdistrict/Dashboard
[1] LEHD is a joint project between the U.S. Census Bureau and the state departments of labor around the country.
[2] Note that Superdistricts are planning units built by the Atlanta Regional Commission from groups of Census tracts to allow consistent comparisons at a sub-county geography over time. These Superdistricts are useful for studying local conditions when counties are too coarse a geography but tracts too fine.