Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

DEFINING JOB CONCENTRATIONS: THE LOS ANGELES CASE

1997; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 18; Issue: 8 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2747/0272-3638.18.8.705

1938-2847

Richard L. Forstall, Richard P. Greene,

Urban Transport and Accessibility

This paper aims to develop a simple technique for defining employment concentrations, suitable for application to any large North American urban area, and to implement it for a major area. Following a review of earlier work, the 1990 distribution patterns of population, resident workers, and jobs in greater Los Angeles are mapped, summarized in tabular form, and compared. After a consideration of alternative approaches, employment concentrations are delineated using census tracts, with the 1990 employment/residence ratio as chief criterion, rather than job density. Of 120 concentrations defined, 11 have more than 100,000 jobs each and 28 have at least 50,000. Downtown Los Angeles, still the region's largest concentration, now is rivaled by the relatively new Irvine. Comparable 1980 data show job growth in most concentrations, although increases Downtown have been modest. The industry profiles of the largest concentrations vary widely, especially as to the significance of manufacturing, which dominates some concentrations but is relatively unimportant in others. The data are inconclusive as to whether jobs in the region became more or less concentrated during the 1980s. The paper also questions two of Garreau's "edge cities" criteria by showing that most such developments in the Los Angeles region are not wholly new and already existed as job concentrations 30 years ago.