Labor Economics Commons^™

Local Market Scale And The Pattern Of Job Changes Among Young Men, Christopher H. Wheeler

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

In finding a career, workers tend to make numerous job changes, with the majority of 'complex' changes (i.e., those involving changes of industry) occurring relatively early in their working lives. This pattern suggests that workers tend to experiment with different types of work before settling on the one they like best. Of course, since the extent of economic diversity differs substantially across local labor markets in the U.S. (e.g., counties and cities), this career search process may exhibit important differences depending on the size of a worker’s local market. This paper explores this issue using a sample of young male …