The use and definition of Travel-to-Work Areas in Great Britain: Some problems

Abstract

Ball R. M. (1980) The use and definition of Travel-to-Work Areas in Great Britain: some problems, Reg. Studies 14, 125–139. The Department of Employment delimit Travel-to-Work Areas (groupings of local employment office areas) for the purpose of presenting statistics on unemployment for relatively self-contained areas. Such an approach has also formed the basis of a more general conceptualisation of local labour market areas for use in local and subregional employment analyses, Assisted Area and Local Government boundary delimitation exercises, and studies of migration. In July 1978, the Department subjected the existing Travel-to-Work Areas to a comprehensive review using journey-to-work data from the 1971 Census. In this paper, it is argued that the basis of such a revision, apparent changes in aggregate journey-to-work behaviour over the most recent inter-censal period, must be carefully interpreted in the light of a number of largely undocumented data constraints.