Across the U.S., employers and applicants find it hard to connect

SOURCE: Urban Insitute analysis of jobs listings data provided by Snag. Data visualization provided by the Urban Institute.

When low-wage workers can’t connect to jobs, families have to deal with persistent unemployment, said Christina Plerhoples Stacy, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute.

Local economies suffer, too. “Employers in fast-growing neighborhoods and cities are having a really hard time filling positions, and that’s got to effect their bottom line,” she said.

In the Bay Area around San Francisco, there are more minimum-wage, hourly job openings than there are people seeking to fill them. The low-wage earners who apply for these positions are likely priced out of the city due to its high housing costs. (The average studio in San Francisco runs around $2,500 a month, according to one recent report).

Job Postings and Job Seekers in the San Francisco Bay Area, 2017