Why Big Cities Thrive, and Smaller Ones Are Being Left Behind
How states rank in being disrupted by
foreign trade and automation*
Rates of recovery from recession
in the 10 states of greatest disruption
How states rank in being disrupted
by foreign trade and automation*
The difference in performance widened: Private employment grew almost twice as fast in large metropolitan
areas as it did in small ones from the trough of the recession, in 2009, to 2015.
To get a sense of the future, he selected big and small metropolitan areas only in the 10 states most subjected to economic disruption — as defined by the penetration of automation
and job displacement as a result of foreign trade — to tease out the effects of these transformative forces.
For starters, big cities have a greater variety of employers
and thus more job opportunities in a richer mix of industries than do small cities, whose fortunes are often tied to those of just a small number of employers.
Whether they rely on steel mills or coal mines, or a hospital or a manufacturing plant,
small metropolitan areas are having a hard time adapting to economic transitions.
