Workforce Mapping
It seems like not a day goes by that something about the labor force isn’t in the news (or this blog). But how much do we really know about the labor force in Central Kentucky?
Luckily, part of the training seminar I attended last week was about a great online toy that the US Census Bureau provides free of charge. It is called On The Map or OTM for short. It uses workplace insurance data to map where people work and where they live. Because of the nature of filing with the state unemployment agencies, data about worker age, income level, and industry type are also available.
First, let’s start with where people in Fayette County work, i.e., where in Fayette County are the centers of employment? The map below shows the concentration of workers in Fayette County for all Primary Jobs*.
You can see that Downtown is the epicenter for jobs in Fayette County with a slight bleed onto UK’s campus (UK is Fayette County’s largest employer). Also not surprising are the number of jobs along the Nicholasville Road corridor heading south – especially if you have to commute that direction. Notice also a high concentration around the Hamburg development on the southwest side of the city and the two outlying business parks on the eastern side of the county, Bluegrass Station at Avon and Athens-Boonesboro Road.
So now that we know where people in Fayette County work, we should look at the labor force shed, or where people who work in Fayette County live.
As you can see, the vast majority, 52.7% in fact, of workers in Lexington also live in Lexington. Furthermore, most of these workers live in the central to southern parts of the county. You can see from this map that Lexington is indeed an employment hub for the surrounding communities. What you can’t see from this map is that more workers actually commute from Louisville (Jefferson County) than from Jessamine County, 5.4% to 5.0% respectively.
All numbers in this post are courtesy of the US Census Bureau’s OTM for 2006. Data through 2008 will be available by year’s end.
*Primary Jobs are all public and private jobs, but people with multiple jobs are only counted once (their “primary” or highest paying job).
