Jobs continue shift to suburbs from downtowns

USA Today reports:

Opportunity-seeking urban dwellers, get ready to start padding that commuting budget. Private sector jobs are continually moving out of city centers to further-flung suburban areas, according to a report out today from the Brookings Institution, an independent public policy institute.

All but three of the 98 major metro areas studied showed a drop in the share of jobs located within 3 miles of downtown, even though the overall number of jobs in those areas increased slightly during the 1998- to-2006 study period.

Detroit, Chicago and Dallas had the most so-called job sprawl, which occurs when companies set up shop away from the city center. More than half of the 98 areas examined had "rapid" job sprawl.

Here's the Brookings(PDF) study.