Continued advances in information and communications technology are fundamentally changing the structure of the workplace and the organisation of work. Temporary work and self-employment are increasing, while job tenure is declining. This paper examines how these changes may affect both commuting patterns and metropolitan form. The growing number of workers who do not have a long-term attachment to a specific employer are termed 'contingent workers'. Using 1990 Public Use Micro Sample data for the Los Angeles region, the paper compares the commuting and location patterns of contingent and non-contingent workers. Results are quite mixed: residential location patterns do not differ significantly across worker categories, but commute length varies by category, with the self-employed having the shortest commutes.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Appelbaum, E. (1987) Restructuring work: temporary, part-time, and at-home employment, in: H. I. Hartman (Ed.) Computer Chips and Paper Clips: Technology and Women's Employment, Vol. 2, pp. 268-310. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
2.
Appelbaum, E. and Alpin, P. (1990) Differential characteristics of employment growth in service industries, in: E. Appelbaum and R. Schettkat (Eds) Labor Market Adjustments to Structural Change and Technological Progress, pp. 36-53. New York: Praeger.
3.
Appelbaum, E. and Schettkat, R. (1990) The impacts of structural and technological change: an overview, in: E. Appelbaum and R. Schettkat (Eds) Labor Market Adjustments to Structural Change and Technological Progress, pp. 3-14. New York : Praeger.
4.
Belous, R. (1989) The contingent economy: the growth of the temporary, part-time and subcontracted workforce. Report No. 239, National Planning Association, Washington, DC.
5.
Bluestone, B. and Harrison, B. (1982) The Deindustrialization of America. New York: Basic Books.
6.
Buckley, M., Barovick, B. and Schwanke, D. (1994) The implications of business restructuring trends on urban growth and development, in: Urban Growth: Development, Prospects and Issues, pp. 4-15. Washington, DC: Urban Land Institute.
7.
Canter, S. (1988) The temporary help supply industry: filling the needs of workers and businesses, in: US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR (Ed.) Flexible Work Styles: A Look at Contingent Labor, pp. 46-49. Washington, DC: US Department of Labor.
8.
Capello, R. (1994) Towards new industrial and spatial systems: the role of new technologies, The Journal of the RSAI, 73, pp. 189-208.
9.
Cervero, R. (1989) Jobs-housing balance and regional mobility, Journal of the American Planning Association, 55, pp. 136-150.
10.
Chinitz, B. (1991) A framework for speculating about future urban growth patterns in the US, UrbanStudies, 28, pp. 939-959.
11.
Crane, R. (1996) The influence of uncertain job location in urban form and the journey to work, Journal of Urban Economics, 39, pp. 342-356.
12.
Deming, W. (1994) Work at home: data from the CPS, Monthly Labor Review, February, pp. 14-30.
13.
Devine, T.J. (1994) Characteristics of self-employed women in the United States, Monthly Labor Review, March, 117(8), pp. 20-34.
14.
Gill, C. (1985) Work, Unemployment and the New Technology. Cambridge: Polity Press.
15.
Giuliano, G. (1991) Is jobs-housing balance a transportation issue? , Transportation Research Record, 1305, pp. 305-312.
16.
Giuliano, G. and Small, K. (1993) Is the journey to work explained by urban structure?Urban Studies, 30, pp. 1485-1500.
17.
Golden, L. and Appelbaum, E. (1992) What was driving the 1982-88 boom in temporary employment ?, The American Journal of Economics and Sociology , 51(4), pp. 473-493.
18.
Gordon, P., Richardson, H. and Gang Yu (1998) Metropolitan and non-metropolitan employment trends in the US: recent evidence and implications, Urban Studies , 35, pp. 1037-1057.
19.
Hamilton, B. (1982) Wasteful commuting, Journal of Political Economy, 90, pp. 1035-1053.
20.
Handy, S. and Mohktarian, P. (1995) Planning for telecommuting; measurement and policy issues, Journal of the American Planning Association, 61(1), pp. 99-111.
21.
Hirshhorn, L. (1988) Computers and jobs: services and the new mode of production, in R. CYERT and D. MowERY (Eds) The Impact of Technological Change on Employment and Economic Growth, pp. 377-415. Cambridge, MA : Ballinger Co.
22.
Howe, W. (1986) Temporary help workers: who they are, what jobs they hold, Monthly Labor Review, November, 106, pp. 45-47.
23.
Huws, U., Korte, W. and Robinson, S. (1990) Telework: Towards the Elusive Office. Chichester: Wiley.
24.
Keith, J. and Barkley, D. (1991) The location of nonmetropolitan high-tech industries: a comparison of regional determinants, Review of Urban and Regional Development Studies, 3, pp. 60-77.
25.
Kitamura, R., Nilles, J., Fleming, D. and Conroy, P. (1990) Telecommuting as a transportation planning measure: initial results of State of California pilot project, Transportation Research Record, 1285, pp. 98-104.
26.
Kutay, A. (1988a) Technological change and spatial transformation in an information economy: 1. A structural model of transition in the urban system, Environment and Planning A, 20, pp. 569-593.
27.
Kutay, A. (1988b) Technology change and spatial transformation in an information economy: 2. The influence of new information technology on the urban system, Environment and Planning A, 20, pp. 707-718.
28.
Lund, J. and Mokhtarian, P. (1994) Telecommting and residential location: theory and implications for commute travel in monocentric metropolis, Transporta tion Research Record, 1463, pp. 10-14.
29.
Mills, E. (1992) Sectoral clustering and metropolitan development, in: E. Mills and J. MacDonald (Eds) Sources of Metropolitan Growth, pp. 3-18. New Brunswick, NJ: Center for Urban Policy Research.
30.
Muller, P. (1995) Transportation and urban form: stages in the spatial evolution of the American metropolis, in: S. Hanson (Ed.) The Geography of Urban Transportation, pp. 26-52. New York: Guilford Press.
31.
Nijkamp, P. and Salomon, I. (1989) Future spatial impacts of telecommunications, Transportation Planning and Technology, 13, pp. 275—287.
32.
Niles, J. (1994) Beyond telecommuting: a new paradigm for the effect of telecommunications on travel. Report DOE/ER-0626, US Department of Energy, Office of Energy Research, Washington, DC.
33.
Noyelle, T. (1987) Beyond Industrial Dualism. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
34.
Office Of Technology Assessment (1995) The technological reshaping of America. Report OTA-ETI-643. Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office.
35.
Oi, W. ( 1988) The indirect effect of technology on retail trade , in: R. Cyert and D. Mowery (Eds) The Impact of Technological Change on Employment and Economic Growth, pp. 329-376. Cambridge, MA : Ballinger Co.
36.
Pendyala, R., Goulias, K. and Kitamura, R. (1991) Impact of telecommuting on spatial and temporal patterns of household travel, Transportation, 18(4), pp. 383-409.
37.
Salomon, I. (1985) Telecommunications and travel: substitution of modified mobility?, Journal of Transportation Economics and Policy, 19(3), pp. 219-235.
38.
Salomon, I. (1990) Telematics and personal travel behavior with special emphasis on telecommuting and teleshopping, in: H. H. Soekka ET Al. (Eds) Telematics: Transportation and Spatial Development, pp. 67-89. Utrecht : VSP.
39.
Salomon, I. and Schofer, J. (1991) Transportation and telecommunications costs, Annals of Regional Science, 25, pp. 19-39.
40.
Scott, A.J. (1988) Metropolis: From Division of Labor to Urban Form . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
41.
Scharpf, F. (1990) Structures of postindustrial society or does mass unemployment disappear in the service and information economy?, in: E. Appelbaum and R. Schettkat (Eds) Labor Market Adjustments to Structural Change and Technological Progress, pp. 17-35. New York: Praeger.
42.
Storper, M. and Chrisopherson, C. (1987) Flexible specialization and regional industrial agglomeration: the case of the US motion picture industry , Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 77, pp. 104-117.
