Do people who move to large cities progress faster in their career?

Key points:
• ‘Escalator’ regions are places people move to get ahead more quickly in
their career.
• In England, London is the main escalator region, and there are fears that
this leads to other large cities losing out on the most highly-skilled
workers.
• This research used the ONS LS to compare working age people at the
1991 and 2001 Censuses who were living in London or one of the next 9
largest English cities.
• For people who stayed in the same city during the decade, those living in
London were 30% more likely to have advanced in their career than those
in the other cities. Manchester was the only other city to show a similar
effect, though it did so at a much lesser level.
• People who moved during the decade experienced a similar ‘escalator’
effect regardless of whether they moved to London or one of the other
cities, and were more likely to have been promoted than people who did
not move.