Skills mismatch, jobs-housing relationship and urban commuting

Abstract

Spatial mismatch, typically triggered by jobs-housing imbalance, might contribute to longer commuting distances/time and generate more severe environmental impacts. However, recent studies have found that long-distance commuting trips still exist in jobs-housing balanced regions. This study focused on how the jobs-housing relationship impacted people's commuting time by subway in Shanghai to understand the power of the jobs-housing ratio and skills mismatch in explaining long-distance commuting trip generation. We estimated skills mismatch based on salary mismatch and education mismatch and found that jobs-housing balance only reduced commuting time for the high-skilled population. For the low-skilled population, commuting time was more sensitive to skills mismatch, particularly education mismatch. Salary mismatch contributed to long-distance commuting for high-skilled workers; however, they traveled long distances for high salaries, compensating for the commute. Further analysis suggested that skills mismatch was much more powerful in explaining home-based commuting trips than work-based ones. Skills matching between workplaces and residences should be a critical concern for more self-contained urban centers. This research improves our understanding of the relationship between skills mismatch and commuting time and suggests implications for reducing commuting time during suburbanization.