Architecture, Building and Planning - Theses
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ItemThe structure of suburban employment in Melbourne( 2009)A popular view of the suburbs is that they are 'commuter' or 'dormitory' locations that provide workers for the city centre but lack good jobs themselves. An extension of this view — embodied in the epithet 'suburban sprawl' — is the perception that the suburbs lack a visible sense of order or economic structure. However the reality is that the suburbs now host most metropolitan jobs. Economic models commonly assume that this growth is driven by firms looking for lower cost locations than the increasingly congested CBD — and that they can instead obtain some measure of agglomeration economies either in suburban centres or, because of lower transport costs, in scattered suburban locations. Empirical studies have shown that the number of centres in most metropolitan suburbs has increased significantly, however the proportion of suburban jobs located in them has generally fallen. This thesis explores these ideas via analysis of the structure of employment in Melbourne over the 25 year period from 1981 to 2006. It differs from other studies by focussing specifically on the suburbs, using a methodology pitched at the suburban scale. It found that jobs growth occurred overwhelmingly in the suburbs and that both the number of suburban centres and their level of sectoral specialisation increased significantly, indicating that the suburbs were not formless but displayed spatial and economic structure. The research offers two important insights. First, suburban jobs growth was driven primarily by suburban population growth, rather than by firms that would prefer a CBD location. Indeed, suburban jobs eschew a CBD location. Second, while the proportion of jobs located in suburban centres declined, this trend was driven largely by the decline of concentration in the Manufacturing sector and was essentially confined to one region. For the greater part of Melbourne, the proportion of jobs located in suburban centres remained constant and increased in most of the non-goods related sectors. Thus if the decline of Manufacturing is allowed for, the density of employment in centres is still a significant aspect of suburban employment development.