Broadband Access, Computer Use, and Labor Market Attachment in Philadelphia

In this research brief, we use labor force participation and unemployment rates from 2014 to 2018 as indicators for labor market attachment, and we find disparities along these indicators based on patterns of broadband access and computer use. By analyzing patterns of broadband access, computer use, and disparities in labor market outcomes, we find that:

• Only 47 percent of households in Philadelphia’s low- and moderate-income (LMI) tracts subscribe to broadband, well below households in middle- and upper-income neighborhoods (63 percent and 77 percent, respectively).
• Households in predominantly Latinx neighborhoods have the lowest subscription rates (47 percent), followed by 52 percent of households in predominantly Black neighborhoods and 76 percent of households in predominantly white tracts.
• The share of households that have a computer is lower in LMI and predominantly Black and Latinx neighborhoods (55 percent, 61 percent, and 49 percent, respectively) than in predominantly white and middleand upper-income neighborhoods (81 percent, 69 percent, and 83 percent, respectively).
• There is a 27 percentage point gap in labor force participation between workers with and without an athome broadband computer in Philadelphia, compared with a 21 percentage point gap in the nation.
• There is a 7 percentage point gap in the unemployment rates between workers with and without an at-home broadband computer in Philadelphia, compared with a 4 percentage point gap in the nation.