Employment deconcentration in the nonmetropolitan migration turnaround

Since 1970, metropolitan-to-nonmetropolitan migration has substantially exceeded the corresponding and historically greater stream of migrants from nonmetropolitan to metropolitan areas. Previous research has concentrated on the changes in retirement mobility, growth of recreation and tourism, and residential preferences responsible in part for the new trends in population distribution. Relatively less attention has been paid to the corresponding phenomenon of the deconcentration of persons who remain actively engaged in the labor force. This research uses data from the Continuous Work History Sample merged with a file of county characteristics to examine trends in location of employed workers from 1960 to 1975. The analyses document changes of county of employment that parallel the trends in general population mobility. The CWHS data show increased movement of employed workers out of the largest SMSAs and into the smaller SMSAs and into both adjacent and nonadjacent nonmetropolitan counties. These data also indicate that the rate of change is greatest for nonadjacent counties. Both increased metropolitan outmovement and decreased nonmetropolitan outmovement are significant in producing the observed net changes.