Spatial mismatch' hurts employers, applicants in major cities

"Spatial mismatch," when low-income job candidates live too far from open jobs to take them, is pervasive in major U.S. metro areas, according to the Urban Institute. After examining 2017 data from Snag, an online job board for hourly workers, the nonprofit found job listings outnumbered available job seekers in zip codes in 12 out of 16 cities it examined. The city with the greatest percentage of zip codes in which open jobs far outnumbered available workers was Boston, followed by New York City, San Francisco, Chicago and Minneapolis, the Urban Institute determined. For the study, the Urban Institute gave 6.3 miles as the farthest reasonable distance that potential workers could live from the center of each zip code to be able to work a job in that zip code.