America's largest cities have 72% of the post-crisis employment growth

Reproduced from a Brookings Institution report; Chart: Axios Visuals

In the recovery from the financial crash, the largest, densest U.S. cities have had much steeper employment growth than smaller communities, according to a new study by Brookings' Clara Hendrickson, Mark Muro and William Galston.

"Big, techy metros like San Francisco, Boston, and New York with populations over 1 million have flourished, accounting for 72% of the nation’s employment growth since the financial crisis. By contrast, many of the nation’s smaller cities, small towns, and rural areas have languished."

An excerpt from the report

The big picture: The report traces this economic trend to the current state of political polarization. "In a very real way, the 2016 election of Donald Trump represented the revenge of the places left behind in a changing economy," the authors say.