A Missed Connection between Job Access and Employment in Northeast Ohio

Nationally, neighborhoods that have a higher job access rate—those jobs in a region that are within typical commuting distance—generally have higher employment rates. In Northeast Ohio, however, the opposite is true: Cleveland metro area neighborhoods with high rates of job access tend to have relatively low employment rates, according to a study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

That’s because there’s a mismatch between a neighborhood’s workforce and employment opportunities within a typical commute, said the study’s author, Kyle Fee, a senior policy analyst in the Bank’s Community Development Department.

Fee compared job access rates and employment in the Cleveland area with those of 96 other metro areas for his research. Fee said, the disconnect he found is “associated with high levels of residential segregation,” while noting that Black neighborhoods are most affected by the job access disconnect in the Cleveland metro area.

Fee added that that policy solutions “must focus on improving the alignment of a neighborhood’s workforce and surrounding employment.”

Read more about his findings: Missed Connections in Cleveland: The Disconnect Between Job Access and Employment

Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland

The Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks that along with the Board of Governors in Washington DC comprise the Federal Reserve System. Part of the US central bank, the Cleveland Fed participates in the formulation of our nation’s monetary policy, supervises banking organizations, provides payment and other services to financial institutions and to the US Treasury, and performs many activities that support Federal Reserve operations System-wide. In addition, the Bank supports the well-being of communities across the Fourth Federal Reserve District through a wide array of research, outreach, and educational activities.

The Cleveland Fed, with branches in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, serves an area that comprises Ohio, western Pennsylvania, eastern Kentucky, and the northern panhandle of West Virginia.

Media contact

Doug Campbell, doug.campbell@clev.frb.org, 513.455.4479