The New Geography of Labor Markets

Mert Akan, Jose Maria Barrero, Nicholas Bloom, Thomas Bowen, Shelby R. Buckman, Steven Davis and Hyoseul Kim

No 33582, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: We study where Americans live in relation to their employer’s worksite using matched employer-employee data, and how that relationship changes with the rise of work from home (WFH). Mean distance from home to employer’s worksite rose more than 70% between 2019 and 2024 in our dataset. Twelve percent of employees hired after March 2020 reside fifty or more miles from their employer by 2024, triple the pre-pandemic share. Distance to employer rose most for those in their 30s and 40s, among highly paid employees, and in Finance, Information, and Professional Services. Especially for the affluent, the pandemic-instigated rise in WFH initiated a multi-year pattern of net migration to areas with cheaper housing and states with lower tax rates. Finally, we show that distant employees exhibit more sensitivity to firm-level adjustments on hiring and separation margins. These developments have implications for residential location, state-level tax revenues, labor markets, and household welfare.

JEL-codes: J20 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lma, nep-mig and nep-ure
Note: CF EFG IO LE LS PE PR
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Working Paper: The New Geography of Labor Markets (2025)
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