The study found that changes in a county's employment rate are influenced by both local and commuting zone labor demand shocks. Commuting zone demand shocks have a greater impact than county demand shocks, especially in areas with lower preexisting employment rates. Low employment rate commuting zones experience larger effects from demand shocks compared to higher-rate zones. Targeting job creation in more distressed commuting zones has a bigger impact than focusing on distressed counties within a commuting zone.