The Location and Suburbanization of Business and Professional Services in the Atlanta Area

Abstract

Despite an increase of 200,000 jobs in business and professional services in the Atlanta metropolitan area between 1982 and 1997, the central city saw employment as a percentage of these services drop by approximately 20 percent. Most growth occurred in the northern suburbs, resulting in a dispersed distribution of business and professional services in Atlanta. To understand the spatial distribution and suburbanization of business and professional services in Atlanta, regression analysis was carried out for 1982 and 1992. Flexible female workers, corporate headquarters, well –educated professionals, and highway access turned out to be important location determinants, with the latter two being increasingly responsible for the suburbanization of business and professional services.