Both population and employment moved from rural to urban areas. In the postwar period, the United States has undergone three other important shifts in the distribution of people and jobs: the movement from the frostbelt to the sunbelt; the movement within metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) from central cities to suburbs (suburbanization); and the relatively faster growth of jobs and people in small and less dense MSAs (deconcentration). The first two regional shifts — frostbelt to sunbelt and city to suburbs — are well known. The third shift — deconcentration — is not so well known.1
This article appeared in the November/December 2000 edition of Business Review.