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Detroit’s Staggering Job Decentralization

DETROIT, MI - JULY 19: A view of downtown Detroit is shown July 19, 2013 in Detroit, Michigan.

Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Here are two striking facts about job decentralization in Detroit from Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley’s recent book The Metropolitan Revolution:

— 61 percent of employed Detroit residents work outside the city limits.

— 30 percent of jobs inside the Detroit city limits are held by residents of Detroit

Katz and Bradley say that gives Detroit the least centralized labor market of all American metro areas. That goes to show that even as the entire Detroit area faces some common economic challenges, there’s also substantial divergence between the fate of the municipality itself and the broader region. New jobs downtown won’t necessarily by jobs for people who live in Detroit, and vice versa.