Where do knowledge workers locate in Germany? A case study using employment relocation data in the German knowledge economy from 2012 to 2021

In Germany, employment is becoming increasingly concentrated in urban areas, largely driven by knowledge-intensive firms competing to attract the most qualified and appropriate labour. Therefore, this paper addresses where knowledge workers relocate to and how relocation patterns vary across spatial distances. Using an innovative origin-destination analysis, we examine job-related employment relocations across 186 functional urban areas in Germany from 2012 to 2021, using official employment data for 480 multi-locational firms, classified into one of three knowledge bases: analytical, synthetic and symbolic. This classification helps explain how firms create and use knowledge in their innovation process and allows us to differentiate workers’ relocation patterns. Our findings reveal a nuanced, multi-scalar perspective on the German knowledge economy. Between 2012 and 2021, knowledge-intensive employment has primarily relocated towards the largest functional urban areas, such as Munich or Frankfurt. However, relocation patterns diverge by knowledge base, and we can reveal the underlying dynamics driving this concentration. Workers in synthetic knowledge bases predominantly relocate on a large scale to and between these largest functional areas and between more decentralised functional areas, suggesting that spatial proximity plays a subordinate role in job-related relocations. In contrast, workers in analytical and symbolic knowledge bases exhibit less frequent relocations to other functional urban areas, instead relocating on a regional scale, mostly between neighbouring or spatially closer functional urban areas.