According to the Census Bureau’s Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics data set, Monroe County lost approximately 12,000 jobs between 2002 and 2015. But job losses were not evenly distributed across the county. Instead, as a recent report prepared by CGR and commissioned by Reconnect Rochester makes clear, the greatest decline in jobs took place in the City of Rochester, specifically in the downtown area.
As the map below makes clear, Monroe County jobs left the City of Rochester in droves during this period. Each census tract in the county is represented by a dot. Blue dots represent the growth in jobs, while red dots illustrate a loss in jobs. The size of the dot details the scale of the job growth or loss between 2002 and 2015.
This shift in the share of jobs from downtown Rochester to the suburbs creates a community that is increasingly difficult to navigate without owning a car. This challenge is particularly felt by low-income members of the community who cannot afford the cost of car ownership. And given the economics of operating a public transportation system, RTS cannot simply shift routes to cover those regions with greater job growth (a reality recognized in RTS’s new proposed system redesign). In short, the ongoing shift of jobs from the city to suburban locations, coupled with the overall loss of jobs in our community, makes it harder and harder for low-income residents to participate fully in the increasingly regional economy.
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