Event Details
Universal resilience patterns in labor markets by Morgan R. Frank
Cities are the innovation centers of the US economy, but disruptions from technology (or COVID-19) may exclude workers and inhibit a middle class. Therefore, urban policy must promote the jobs and skills that increase worker pay, create employment, and make their economy resilient to downturns. In this talk, I model labor market resilience in cities with an ecologically-inspired employment matching process on the job network constructed from the similarity of occupation's skill requirements. Despite regional and historical differences, the economic resilience of cities is universally and uniquely determined by the connectivity between jobs within a city's job network. US cities with greater job connectivity experienced lower unemployment rates during the Great Recession. Cities that increase their job connectivity over time see increasing wage bills, and workers of occupations with high degree within a city's job network enjoy higher wages than their peers elsewhere. Finally, I show how job connectivity may clarify the augmenting and deleterious impact of automation in US cities. Following from these results, policy that promotes connected occupations may grow local labor markets and promote general economic resilience capable of addressing technology-driven labor trends.
- Thursday — June 11, 2020
12:00PM - 12:30PM - Virtual
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AI.LA
AI LA is a community of today's most curious minds focused on tomorrow’s most challenging problems. We explore artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other emerging technologies, and the impacts they will have on humanity. We acknowledge that AI is influenced by both art and science, and that human concerns outweigh technological ones.