Good afternoon, and welcome back.
Young adults tend to stay close to the nest, according to an analysis of census data, indicating that local wage gains go largely to workers from the area.
A research paper released Monday from the Census Bureau in collaboration with Harvard University found that 80% of young adults at age 26 had moved less than 100 miles of where they grew up, and 10% relocated more than 500 miles away. My colleague Rina Torchinsky reports that the study was primarily based on census and tax data for people born in the U.S. between 1984 and 1992, and focused on where they lived at age 26, compared with where they grew up.
The results varied by parental income, race and ethnicity. Black young adults tend to stay closer than their white counterparts, and young people raised by lower-income parents don’t move as far as those with higher parental incomes.
The researchers’ goal was to understand migration patterns between childhood and young adulthood, and how those patterns change in response to economic opportunities, said Ben Sprung-Keyser, one of the report authors.
When policy makers debate measures aimed at spurring labor-market growth, they often want benefits such as wage gains to flow primarily to those who grew up in a given area. The paper showed this is generally the case.
The findings of the study can be used to inform local investment in communities, whether in the form of policies encouraging companies to bring factories to a given location, subsidies to support workers or targeted funding for infrastructure, Mr. Sprung-Keyser said.
Read on for more news, and stay well.
–Francesca Fontana, WSJ Reporter
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