Kyle D. Fee

This paper quantifies the relationship between local opioid prescription rates and labor market outcomes in the United States between 2006 and 2016. To understand this relationship at the national level, we assemble a data set that allows us both to include rural areas and to estimate the relationship at a disaggregated level. We control for geographic variation in both short-term and long-term economic conditions. In our preferred specification, a 10 percent higher local prescription rate is associated with a lower prime-age labor force participation rate of 0.53 percentage points for men and 0.10 percentage points for women. We focus on measuring the impact of opioid prescriptions on labor markets, so we evaluate the robustness of our estimates to an alternative causal path, unobserved selection, and an instrumental variable from the literature.

The second revision of this working paper studies the relationship between local opioid prescription rates and labor market outcomes for prime-age men and women between 2006 and 2016. We estimate three panel models to control for evolving local economic conditions: a difference-in-differences specification, a specification with specific controls for economic conditions, and a model that focuses on a comparison group of place with similar performance in 2000. These modelling approaches find a range of statistically significant and economically substantial results for both prime-age men and women.

Our first revision of this working paper improves the joint measurement of labor market outcomes and prescription rates in the rural areas where nearly 30 percent of the US population lives. We find that increasing the local prescription rate by 10 percent decreases the prime-age employment rate by 0.50 percentage points for men and 0.17 percentage points for women. Our estimates imply that prescription opioids can account for 44 percent of the realized national decrease in men’s labor force participation between 2001 and 2015.

In this paper we contrast the spatial patterns of population density and other demographic changes in growing versus shrinking MSAs from 1980 to 2010.

This Commentary examines the extent to which disparities exist between Blacks and whites in labor market outcomes such as levels of labor force participation, unemployment rates, and earnings. To gauge whether disparities have narrowed or widened since 2000, national trends in these outcomes during the past two decades are compared to the trends in three states: Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Finally, to assess the current state of economic inclusion as reflected in the labor market, gaps in Black and white outcomes are compared across US states in 2020.

Why has average income grown in some poor neighborhoods over the past 30 years and not in others?

All the signs in the housing market seem to be pointing the right way, except the amount of time loans are spending in the foreclosure process. Foreclosure fast-tracks for vacant homes in foreclosure may help reverse that trend.

Though most people in the US live in metropolitan areas, they’ve been choosing to live farther and farther from the center of those areas since the 1950s.

Four years into the economic recovery, housing markets have finally started to improve.

Not only has poverty recently increased in the United States, it has also become more concentrated.

In recent decades, some cities have seen their urban centers lose population density, as residents spread farther out to suburbs and exurbs. Others have kept populous downtowns even as their environs have grown.

Workers with more education typically earn more than those with less education, and the difference has been growing in recent decades.

Economists have been arguing about the connection between unemployment and inflation for decades.

Most Ohio driver’s license suspensions do not stem from bad driving; they result from drivers owing unpaid debts. We investigate whether debt-related suspensions have implications for Ohio’s labor force.

Turnover in childcare work was about 65 percent higher in 2022 than in a typical job, while attrition among preschool and kindergarten teachers was on par with a typical job.

Workers in the highest-quality jobs are more likely to remain in those jobs and less likely to be unemployed or leave the labor force. The opposite is true for workers in the lowest-quality jobs. This analysis adds to a growing body of research about job quality and shows that it is an important dimension of the labor market to consider.

As consolidation within the banking industry during the 2000s accelerated in the 2010s, the number of banking institutions and the branches they operate fluctuated. How did these changes affect banking customers?

As consolidation within the banking industry during the 2000s accelerated in the 2010s, the number of banking institutions and the branches they operate fluctuated. How did these changes affect banking customers?

Generally, a high job-access rate has a positive impact on employment; that is, in areas where jobs are easier to reach, employment rates are usually higher. But this isn’t true for the Cleveland metro area. In fact, we see the reverse: Neighborhoods with high rates of job access tend to have low employment rates, and neighborhoods with low rates of job access tend to have high employment rates.

Increasing workers’ access to jobs has been found to significantly decrease the duration of joblessness among lower-income unemployed workers. Policies that influence the location of employment growth within a metro area could impact the pace of the labor market recovery from the COVID-19-induced recession. By studying trends in job access, we discern developments that might inform our policy choices.

Fed research shows that defining occupations by the skills required to do them could expand opportunities for economic mobility.

The economic development field encourages business and job growth, while workforce development ensures individuals have the education, skills, and training needed to obtain jobs. This report provides perspectives on alignment as well as challenges and opportunities for greater alignment between the two systems, using stakeholder input from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland’s Fourth District.

College-educated workers typically have greater success in the labor market than do workers without a bachelor’s degree (hereafter “sub-baccalaureate workers”), as measured by both earnings and rates of employment. In light of research indicating a “polarization” of the labor market with an increase of higher- and lower-wage jobs and a decline in middle-wage jobs, it is worth asking this question: Do certain regional economies offer greater opportunity than others for the more than two-thirds of adults without a bachelor’s degree?

This report updates a 2015 publication investigating regional economic opportunity for workers without a four-year college degree.

A companion to “Exploring Employment for Sub-Baccalaureate Workers Across Metro Areas and Over Time,” this report extends the opportunity occupation research by providing detailed information metropolitan areas.

Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50. In the Fourth District states of Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, opioid overdose deaths are occurring at rates that exceed the 2016 national average of 13.2 deaths per 100,000 people.

This A Look behind the Numbers takes a deep dive into the registered nurse (RN) labor market, using online job posting data to gain a better understanding of how much education employers prefer when hiring.

This special report provides a description of neighborhood change in the four largest cities of the Fourth Federal Reserve District, Cincinnati, Cleveland, and Columbus, Ohio, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1970 to 2010.

This report documents the availability of high-speed internet access in the Fourth Federal Reserve District. While our analysis clearly shows there is limited broadband access in rural parts of the Fourth District, it shows that urban low- and moderate-income (LMI) areas also have limited access.

This special report examines multiple sector-based partnerships addressing the job-skills mismatch facing employers in the Fourth District. Spanning various industries, including healthcare, IT, advanced manufacturing, marine mechanics, and coal mining, these initiatives differ in fundamental ways. But all emphasize collaboration between employers and economic and educational organizations. Overall, such partnerships appear to be working for both employers and workers, with evaluations identifying increased wages, reduced turnover, and increased productivity.

In this report we take an in-depth look at “opportunity occupations”—those jobs that do not require a four-year degree and that pay a decent wage—in Ohio’s eight largest metro areas.

Researchers investigate the extent to which the U.S. economy offers decent-paying jobs to workers without a four-year college degree.

This publication is a compilation of research published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland on housing markets that are experiencing foreclosure and/or a large number of vacant properties, including a policy white paper released May 2013...

This summer, the Cleveland Fed held its first listening session to hear perspectives from workers—particularly low-wage workers and workers of color. The biggest takeaway? Job quality—not just a paycheck—is more important than ever.

Both jobseekers and workforce development professionals can use this interactive tool to turn job skills into higher-paying positions. How will you use it?

Skills-based hiring practices—those that prioritize skills necessary to succeed in a role over formal educational credentials—show potential for securing higher positions for lower-wage workers and helping employers get the workers they need.

What have we learned about discriminatory lending practices 50 years after the Fair Housing Act was passed? For one, it’s very important to have complete data to make a conclusive claim.

Senior Policy Analyst Kyle Fee learns more about the state’s workforce development efforts.

In this Ask the Expert, Kyle Fee, a Cleveland Fed community development policy advisor who researches issues related to economic and workforce development, identifies actions employers are and are not taking to attract workers.

The Fed’s Occupational Mobility Explorer tool is intended to help low-wage workers interested in upward mobility find jobs that don’t need a four-year degree.

Innovations in US payments will transform the way the payment system works over a period of years.

What has driven the slow growth of wages, which occupations have experienced faster wage growth, and which have experienced no wage growth?

At a glance, workforce development may seem outside the Federal Reserve System’s typical purview. But it’s not. A Cleveland Fed analyst offers 10 reasons why the Federal Reserve is committed to workforce development.

Policy Summit 2012 presented attendees with new ways to approach economic development that is multipronged, holistic, and includes long-term planning and execution.

In 2009, banks became the reluctant holders of more than 1,500 foreclosed properties in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. Most of these houses are in Cleveland, worth little to nothing, and in danger of remaining vacant for the foreseeable future—destined to define neighborhood decay.