• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.49 no.3
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• pp.390-404
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• 2014

This study analysed the job-housing balance using the number of employees and workers data, and investigated the relationship between job-housing ratio and commuting trip in the Seoul metropolitan area. Between 2005-2010, in the central business district which functioned as urban center, the number of employees were reduced and population growth slowed. Meanwhile, the suburbanization of employment and population has advanced as the employment and population moved from Seoul to Gyeonggi-do. As the increasement of workers compared to the employees became prominent, the excess workers increased significantly. The size of excess workers acted as a factor which reduced the job-housing ratio. Job-housing imbalance worsened in Gyeonggi-do especially. While in many regions, job-housing imbalance improved in clerical, sales, and professional job sectors, but in some regions, the job-housing imbalance worsened in simple labor job and service job sectors. The number of jobs which job-housing imbalance was eased increased in the employment center. The more the job-housing ratio is high, the lower the degree of self-sufficiency of commuting trip and the proportion of internal commuters. In business centers where the number of employees exceed the number of workers, the job-housing ratio and the proportion of commuting trips coming from other regions showed decreasing trend together. The results bear important implications for regional labour market plans considering the spatial mismatch between jobs and housing.