A longitudinal study of changes in intra-metropolitan employment concentration in Beijing: Decentralisation, reconcentration and polycentrification

This article explores the spatial trend of intra-metropolitan employment concentration in the Beijing metropolitan area from 2004 to 2013. We use multiple-year economic census data and construct a unique longitudinal dataset of employment at the subdistrict level, applying the locally weighted regression method to identify employment centres in Beijing. The results show that jobs continued to decentralise from the urban core to the suburbs in Beijing over the studied period; however, different from the common trajectory of Western metropolitan spatial evolution, decentralised jobs tended to be more concentrated in subcentres and the polycentric urban structure prevailed in Beijing. Polycentricity strengthened in Beijing from 2004 to 2008, but job dispersion increased at the expense of polycentricity during 2008–2013. However, job dispersion did not follow an unstructured model; instead, subcentres played an increasingly important role in structuring the dispersed jobs. Job dispersion in Beijing has been more associated with the scatteration of service jobs, while manufacturing jobs tended to be more concentrated in subcentres, which contributed to the polycentric development of the capital. We also observe the persistence in the location of employment centres in Beijing over the studied period, as well as substantial spatial changes in the boundaries of employment centres, which suggests that the employment concentrations within the metropolitan area are persistent but not static.