What is a Commuting Zone and Labor Market Area?
This research replicated a previous delineation of U.S. 1980 commuting zones and labor market areas. County to county flows of commuters were analyzed with a hierarchical cluster algorithm. The results of the cluster analysis were used to identify commuting zones (CZs) or groups of counties with strong commuting ties. For 1990, 741 commuting zones were delineated for all US counties and county equivalents. These commuting zones are intended for use as spatial proxies for local labor markets when researchers are not concerned with minimum population thresholds. Where necessary, the commuting zones were then aggregated in to 394 labor market areas (LMA’s) that met the Bureau of the Census’ criterion of a 100,000 population minimum.
