The effect of adolescent neighborhood poverty on adult employment

Neighborhood environments affect the long-term labor market success of America's urban youth. Urban poverty grew more spatially concentrated during the 1970s and 1980s as industrial economies dramatically restructured. Some policies attempted to address the problems of impoverished neighborhoods by stimulating in-situ economic development, while others sought to geographically disperse the poor. Poverty grew less concentrated during the 1990s because of robust national economic growth and dispersal-oriented federal policies. Before celebrating, however, the long term effects of growing up in poor neighborhoods need to be considered. We used National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data, geocoded to census tracts, to examine the effects of neighborhood poverty rates encountered during adolescence on adult employment. Living in poor neighborhoods during adolescence carries a long-term labor market disadvantage, caused at least in part by the limited ability to accumulate early work experience. Males appear to be more sensitive to these neighborhood effects than females.