A lot of talk recently about the “15 minute city”. Providing better public space & amenities, more services, shopping, etc. locally all a great idea. But the idea of more of us *working* close to home needs grounding in the realities of the geography & diverse nature of jobs.1/10

The kinds of jobs most amenable to locating in local neighbourhoods are the “population-related” ones that serve residents: e.g. retail, personal services, schools, restaurants, community facilities.2/10

There were c. 1.3 million of these population-related jobs in the Greater Golden Horseshoe in 2016 – about 1/3 of all jobs with a usual place of work.3/10

Other jobs are in the “traded” sector, the production of goods and services exported outside the region (e.g. finance, tech, higher ed, business services, manufacturing). There were c. 2.4 million of these jobs in 2016 in the GGH, about 59% of jobs with a usual place of work.4/10

The location drivers of traded sector jobs are complex, including access to skilled labour, agglomeration economies, etc. It would be difficult to execute a major shift in the locational patterns of these jobs.5/10

Here the 15 minute city could focus on adding more housing and amenities near to where the jobs are, e.g. low-density suburban office parks with opportunities for densification.6/10

Other traded sector jobs are in industries not compatible with close integration with residential (manufacturing, distribution). Even with pop-related jobs, not all workers are able to work in their own neighbourhood. And many pop-related jobs serve employment areas.7/10

But given the pandemic, more people will be working from home and telecommuting you say. In 2016, c. 334,000 workers worked from home (telecommuting or not), or about 8% of jobs with a usual place of work in the GGH.8/10

It’s true that - at least temporarily - this number is likely to be higher. Some additional share of workers may continue to work from home at least part time in the longer term, depending on the kind of work.9/10

Taking this into account in planning neighbourhoods is a good idea, including providing co-working spaces and nearby business services.
(Data from my report for Neptis: https://www.neptis.org/publications/planning-next-ggh )10/10