Analysis of Commuting Distances of Low-Income Workers in Memphis Metropolitan Area, TN

Abstract

The paper tests whether low-income workers suffer a greater commuting cost burden compared with a typical commuter within the context of decreasing economic opportunity. The paper adds to the spatial mismatch research by studying the metropolitan area in the U.S. South, which experienced “some of the largest decreases” in job proximity in 2012. Memphis, Tennessee, saw the disproportionately steep declines in the average employment opportunities within a typical commute distance experienced by low-income and minority residents. The paper first delineates low-income neighborhoods across the study area, then identifies commuting patterns within the three-state study area including the greater Memphis, and lastly, it compares average commute lengths by a typical and a low-income commuter, as well as the shares of resident workers with a long commute by earning category. The paper offers insight into the ways in which the changes in spatial location of employment and population within the metropolitan area may impact commuting distance for disadvantaged low-income travelers. We show low-income workers commute statistically significantly shorter distances to their places of work compared with a typical commuter. Our other results find that disadvantaged workers in Shelby County, TN, are disproportionately concentrated in lower-wage industries, such as hospitality and retail service industries, compared to overall workers. Finally, a significantly greater proportion of disadvantaged workers travel long distances of over 50 miles compared with higher-earning workers, indicating the disparity in commuting patterns between a typical resident and a low-income worker.

Unemployment in Socially Disadvantaged Communities in Tennessee, US, During the COVID-19

“…Further, assuming the pandemic lingers, while new remote working arrangements may permanently shift many jobs worked from home, many disadvantaged workers are unable to telework or stay home. Yet other potential pandemic consequences include spatial distributions of jobs, labor supply, and worker spending, affecting the future of cities (Barrero et al, 2020), and therefore, having potentially profound effects on vulnerable communities which already experienced greater employment exodus from their residential areas (Antipova, 2020a). Future months will confirm whether concerns about the transmission of infectious diseases result in the expected business, jobs, workers and capital big-scale reallocations away from dense cities with further implications for disadvantaged communities.…”

“…Disadvantaged low-income workers are more likely to be concentrated in industries with lower average hourly wages such as leisure and hospitality and other service industries which do not allow remote working (Antipova, 2020a), however, teleworkfriendly industries such as finance and insurance have little to no changes in unemployment. Since the economic effects of COVID-19 in the United States might be felt for years to come (Weinstock, 2020), while the official US unemployment rate is estimated to increase during the near months (Forsythe et al, 2020), identifying communities where disadvantage exists is of upmost importance as it may mitigate the COVID-19-related adverse economic outcomes.…”

Measuring Efficiency Of Family And Non-Family Firm Amidst Covid-19 Times: Do They Perform Differently?

“…Dealing with inevitable global economic downturns at that moment, all business entities shall work with resources at minimum cost, adapting to their lower revenue. Great number of workers are furloughed and laid off that mostly come from middle-low income group where labor force usually takes the largest portion of company's operating costs apart from cost of the raw material (Antipova, 2020(Antipova, , 2021Petterson et al, 2020). Besides the unemployment issue, most companies also implement cutting marketing expenditure, particularly to purchase traditional advertisement.…”

Analysis of the COVID-19 impacts on employment and unemployment across the multi-dimensional social disadvantaged areas

“…This study is situated in the context of social disadvantage. Prior studies developed the methodology of the delineation of disadvantaged residential communities proxied by low-income workers ( Antipova, 2020 ) [1]. Disadvantaged low-income workers can be defined as those with inadequate access to material and social resources in the study area.…”

“…Some racial groups disproportionally have jobs that do not allow them to work from home and where social distancing is a challenge. Prior studies find that workplaces of low-income individuals tend to be close to their residential spaces, and disproportionately concentrated in lower-wage industries such as hospitality and retail services ( Antipova, 2020a , Antipova, 2020b ). These industries commonly represent essential services experiencing higher exposure to the COVID virus through workplaces.…”