Office Employment Growth and the Changing Function of Cities

Abstract

The proportion of a city's local and regionally/nationally supported office employment changes as the city assumes more central place functions. Certain mixes of office employment should reflect the central place function of the city and promote office growth. Forty-five cities are studied using data from 1997, 1982, and 1985. The results indicate that the variance of office employment does not help predict a city's growth, but that certain cluster categories of office employment are associated with office employment growth. Finally, the results indicate that office employment profiles of cities have become more homogenized over time.