A Comparative Analysis of Employment Change in the Northeast

A modified version of shift-share analysis is used to examine spatial, temporal and compositional trends in employment growth in the Northeastern United States during the 1970s. The analysis is presented for subregions, states and metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties. Secondary data compiled by the Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis is used. Employment growth in the Northeast, though positive overall, did not keep pace with that of the nation. While the distribution of employment among industries was very similar in the Northeast and the United States, the performance of these industries was not. The sane was true for the three major subregions that comprise the Northeast. Nonmetropolitan counties outperformed their metropolitan counterparts in employment growth during the decade, with the most rural county types shewing the greatest percentage employment growth