The U.S. Census Bureau and the Local Employment Dynamics (LED) Partnership in collaboration with the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) and the Labor Market Information (LMI) Institute, welcomes Kenan Fikri as he presents, “Persistently Poor, Left Behind and Chronically Disconnected.” Join our presenter as he explores how commuting patterns at the local and tract levels reveal the extent to which a place is disconnected from the progress of its neighboring areas. Using the Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics (LEHD) Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES) data, which provides detailed statistics on the flow of workers between home and work tracts, he uncovers patterns of economic isolation and connection.

Kenan Fikri is a Senior Fellow at EIG and a leading scholar in economic geography and development. In his role, Kenan aids the research department in helping policymakers and the public better understand how the U.S. economy is evolving and what it means for people and places. Kenan is a proud alumnus of the U.S. Department of Commerce, the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, and The World Bank Group. He holds his Master’s in Local Economic Development from the London School of Economics and his Bachelor’s in International Relations and Economics from American University.