My past rant generated a number of opinions from commentators expressing the view that jobs, or the lack of jobs, are the reason that people do not live in Northeast Ohio. Personally, I agree with you. However, I am going to play devil’s advocate and argue that jobs are not a cause but an effect.
Basically, the old viewpoint was that most of you were right. That is, people went were they could find jobs, or they did 50 or 100 years ago.
However, a new argument, and one many communities in Northeast Ohio have paid big money to hear, is that jobs are not a cause but an effect. By this I mean, people go where they want to live. People go to communities that offer the amenities they desire. Especially creative and entrepreneurial people. Those energetic people then create the jobs. So, jobs do not make a location desirable. It is a desirable location, which attracts productive people, who then create the good jobs.
This relationship between positive characteristics of a community and the creation of jobs is held to be especially true for Generation Millennial and for various minority groups.
So, who is right? Do jobs lead people to want to move to an area such as Northeast Ohio? Or is it the people pleasing properties of the cosmopolitan city that lead people to want to move to an area and create jobs?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
NEOhio aside, people move places for various reasons. One big one seems to be weather if you take a place like Cape Coral, FL for a prime example. Cape Coral has made headlines recently due to their leading the country in home foreclosures, etc. My parents moved there a few years ago (retired) to enjoy the weather. I was stunned by the rate of which the community grew (now well over 250,000 people) as it lead the country in growth for several years.
What made me scratch my head was that the area has zero industry…meaning no jobs potential. And yet it wasn’t just elderly retired folks moving there. Some enterprising people have created businesses there and made a place for themselves but when I last visited in October the rate of unemployed people was staggering. In my parents immediate neighborhood of perhaps 100 homes (typical middle-class, small family homes) I’d guess that nearly 30 percent of those are unoccupied. And neighborhood gossip guesses that many more will be vacent in the near future. Some have attempted moving back “north” where they came from but couldn’t sell their homes in order to finance the move.
So those people did not move for jobs because jobs didn’t exist – they only hoped to find one once they got there. Some may attempt to relocate again (this time specifically to find a job), but due to inability to sell their current homes, they are unable to do that.
In this case – jobs did not necessarily follow people as some would make a case would happen. SOME jobs did, but not nearly enough to support an entire growing community. I would make an argument that somehow, the city should have found a way to attract industry first to support the people.
Bobbi, A great example of the point of people moving to a location for a reason other than jobs. I guess here it was the opportunity for jobs, and weather, except the job never materialized. Maybe it is all about luck, or random walks.
I guess I would also point out (more to your original point) that I know several people who have moved to NEOhio and love it here. Some have stayed while others have not. Those who are still here will point out our natural beauty (parks, etc) and copious cultural activities (there is ALWAYS something to do here) that are lacking in 90% of the rest of the country. We are lucky to have so much available to us on an ongoing basis. However, nearly all of the newcomers came here with a specific job already committed to – giving fodder to your theory that they came because of jobs…albeit one at a time. During conversations with those transplanted friends, they are always amazed at how unimpressed we natives are with our own backyard. Looking at the area through their eyes gives me a new gratitude for our many blessings even while we struggle with jobs, etc.