Finding a better job: The geography of socio-professional mobility during working life

What determines the chances of moving up or down to better or worse jobs? We examine how local labor markets influence individuals’ socio-professional mobility throughout their working lives, focusing on large promotions and demotions. Using an empirical strategy that accounts for spatial sorting bias, applied to a sample of approximately 350,000 workers in France between 2009 and 2015, we find that job density, local human capital, and labor market size significantly increase the likelihood of being promoted to a higher socio-professional status. The effect of local factors is stronger for external promotions (outside the firm) than for internal ones. Moreover, experience accumulated in the most densely populated and educated areas continues to enhance promotion prospects, even after relocating to less dense or educated areas. This dynamic effect of promotion explains around 16% of the wage premium associated with experience in dense areas. Finally, we show that agglomerations effects on promotion are driven more by human capital externalities and proximity to other dense markets than by pure urbanization or scale effects. • We quantify the influence of local labor markets on workers’ socioprofessional mobility. • French data show that density, human capital concentration, and labor market size increase the likelihood of promotion to a higher socio-professional group. • The impact is driven more by human capital externalities and proximity to other dense markets than by pure urbanization or scale effects. • The effect is stronger for external promotions (outside the firm) than for internal promotions. • Experience gained in denser or highly educated areas enhances promotion prospects, even after relocation to less dense areas. This dynamic effect accounts for approximately 16% of the experience-related wage premium observed in those areas.