In each of the four labor markets we examined, the sub-baccalaureate labor market is almost entirely local. In their search for employees, firms generally advertise locally; if they establish relations with any educational providers, they do so with community colleges or area vocational schools within the same community. Community colleges, technical institutes, and area vocational schools target local employers as well, and deans and instructors report that their students search for employment almost exclusively within the local community. In contrast, employers routinely search statewide and nationally for their upper-level professional and managerial positions, and such individuals are much more mobile (and mobile for job-related reasons) than are less well-educated individuals.[27]
We found only a few exceptions to the local pattern of sub-baccalaureate labor markets. One appeared in cases of highly specialized skills. For example, one company that produces lasers in the Palmdale area hires most of its workers from a community college in Iowa and from a technical institute in Texas with a similar laser program. In the case of the Iowa community college, a former employer had established a program there designed around the company's requirements so that the college provided virtually firm-specific instruction.[28]
In a very few cases, employers have established good working relations with distant community colleges. The three clearest examples (out of the many employers we interviewed) were all relatively large firms. One consistent case of hiring outside the local area involved a private four-year technical school in Phoenix, mentioned independently by several employers in both Rosefield and Palmdale. While the advantage of this particular school is not clear,[29] it has clearly established a stable reputation and relationship with numerous employers. The only other example involved another Arizona private trade school that prepares drafters and whose intensive training and selection ("students from all over pay to go to school, and they pay a lot") were cited by one recruiter as reasons for their students' success. However, these were the only two examples in our four labor markets of extensive reliance on nonlocal proprietary schools, so we consider them anomalies.[30]
In addition, local educational decisions sometimes force employers to search further for their new hires. For example, when electronics programs in the Palmdale area closed because of the lack of demand during the recession, one employer reported searching in Rosefield for technicians. (At the same time, a Rosefield employer mentioned plans to recruit from an electronics program of a Palmdale-area community college that had closed down, indicating a lack of familiarity with existing programs.) In addition, employers report that they advertise more widely during periods of expansion and shortages.
However, these are clearly exceptions; for most occupations, most employers, and most educational providers, the sub-baccalaureate labor market is a local phenomenon. The most obvious consequence is that shortages in specific occupations can persist because it is difficult for wage mechanisms to lure trained workers from other areas. For example, because of its agricultural base and relative dearth of manufacturing, Frankton lacks a substantial pool of production workers, including skilled machinists and repairmen; since it is difficult to induce such individuals to move from other areas[31] and the intermittent employment patterns in manufacturing provide little incentive for the development of local programs, the shortage persists.
Another consequence of exclusively local labor markets is more speculative. Within an economy in transition, changes take many forms: Some firms adopt new technologies and work organizations, as mentioned above; some occupations (e.g., electronics technicians and computer-related occupations) wax while others (agriculture and manufacturing positions) wane; and some regions and localities gain at the expense of others, as in the population shift from the Midwest and Northeast to the South and West, the continued mobility out of rural areas, and the rise of localities (Silicon Valley, the Research Triangle of North Carolina, and the area around Austin, Texas) associated with high technology (and, in earlier periods, localities associated with oil and gas and with the defense and aerospace industries). The transitions of an economy therefore involve spatial adjustments as well as occupational and sectoral changes. But within the sub-baccalaureate labor market, such spatial adjustments are slower because of the local nature of these markets: the local shortages and surpluses created as a result of national patterns persist longer than they would if there were more interregional mobility.[32]
[27] See also Grubb and McDonnell (1991) for confirmation of the local nature of these labor markets. CPS data on mobility patterns confirms that individuals with less than a B.A. degree are half as likely to move as those with B.A. and graduate degrees and are much less likely to give job changes as reasons for moving (see Bureau of the Census, 1989).
[28] In this somewhat odd case, the local community college's laser program did not seem to be able to place its students with the local company because of its preference for the Iowa program. The Iowa laser program had been established earlier than the local program and apparently with more firm-specific components. Our interpretation is that because of the uncertainty surrounding hiring, a successful hiring pattern once established is unlikely to be changed.
[29] One production manager cited the quality of its preparation in electronics, but another mentioned that graduates were "professional," "courteous," and "good interviewees," with "concepts, foundations, but without a lot of hands-on experience"--suggesting that interviewing skills from "excellent career counseling" provided an edge. One employer said that the four-year degree was "really just a one-year extension from the A.A. degree," with its four-year graduates competing with individuals from two-year colleges, and another claimed that the firm hired "more ethnics"--African-American and Hispanic applicants--from this institution, suggesting it was used as a screen for affirmative action hiring.
[30] These were virtually the only two positive mentions of proprietary schools. Other references to proprietary schools by employers were generally negative, citing the short period of training and the lack of hands-on experience.
[31] While it is difficult to lure individuals from other areas because of the local nature of search in the sub-baccalaureate labor market, in the case of Frankton two other impediments exist: generally low wage levels, a consequence of the agricultural base, and the lack of amenities in Frankton.
[32] Our view of labor market adjusting slowly to disturbances is part of a larger analysis of how local labor markets adjust. For one effort to examine this issue, see Eberts and Stone (1992).