Upward job mobility in local economies

Abstract

This article studies upward job mobility in different types of local economies. Relying on Swedish register data, we disentangle the impacts stemming from local labour market size, the presence of related industries and occupations and the size of own-industry and own-occupation concentrations. Results show that the local economic structure is important in shaping upward mobility outcomes. However, we observe different impacts from local industry-versus-occupation agglomerations and depending on whether people move from lower-paid or higher-paid jobs. The results have important implications for understanding the drivers of upward job mobility in times of increasing labour market polarization and regional divergence.