Dynamic Dependencies: A Geographic Investigation of Local Labor Markets

Abstract

Knowledge is grounded in experience, which in large part is rooted in the place-bound interactions of everyday life. We view labor market processes in the context of such interactions and explore the ways in which the experience-based knowledges of employers and employees construct labor markets within metropolitan areas and contribute to segmentation within the labor force. In-depth interviews with workers and employers in the manufactur- ing and producer services sectors of Worcester, Massachusetts, reveal the place-based processes through which local labor markets and segmentations develop. Employers prove to be astute social geographers, keenly aware of local variations in the residential landscape, locating their firms to win proximity to a local labor force having the particular characteristics deemed desirable. In recruiting workers, employers rely on strategies, such as advertisements in local newspapers and word of mouth, to ensure a localized labor force. Employers' rootedness in the local area and their reluctance to risk losing their current labor force by moving far reinforce the spatial divisions of labor they themselves helped to create through their locational and recruiting strategies. Employees, for their part, contribute to carving out small-scale labor markets through a preference for short journeys to work, a reliance on personal contacts in finding jobs, and through residential rootedness in particular parts of the metropolitan area. The sometimes microscopic labor markets that develop as a result have distinctive characteristics in terms of employment opportunities and wage levels. A geographic perspective shows that labor markets emerge from processes far more complex than economic exchange.