ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the factors that contribute to economic performance by local labor market areas (LMAs). It identifies the determinants of overall economic performance and its components of LMAs and examines if the determinants of economic performance in LMAs differ in times of recessions and recoveries. The chapter investigates to what extent the determinants of economic performance differ for metropolitan and nonmetropolitan LMAs. Economic performance is a multifaceted concept encompassing many aspects of well-being. In its more restricted meaning, it includes per capita income, employment growth, the unemployment rate, and underemployment. Employment growth in a social system— for example, labor market area—stems from national aggregate growth and structural change in the spatial division of labor. The new urban sociology adds alternative explanations of local economic growth. Researchers focusing on the industrial transformation addressed two key issues: the industrial mix of a labor market and the more general transformation from goods-producing economy to a service economy.
