Specialization in Business Services

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Abstract

Business services, the most rapidly growing sector within commercial services, includes accountants, computer services and other kinds of consultants — all those activities that serve other businesses. This map shows the difference between the actual employment in business services and the expected level, based on the city's population and income. Like financial services, business services are strongly oriented to big cities and to high-income locations, and within cities they concentrate in downtown office buildings and financial districts.

Business services, as their name implies, deliver services mainly to other businesses, rather than to individuals. These services are the most rapidly growing sector within commercial services, and include accountants, computer services and other kinds of consultants. Business services have the strongest relationship, of all the commercial sectors, to city size and high-income locations.

Geographical Description

On this map, the size of the circles is proportional to the population of the cities, while the degree of specialization is shown by the colour in the legend. The map of business-service specialization closely resembles the distribution of financial services. In addition to the pattern of specialization due to variations in the size of external trade (market) areas, the regional capitals are favoured, as are smaller cities around the largest metropolitan areas. Many of the highest values occur in cities near metropolitan areas. In eastern Canada, large cities (for example, Montréal and Toronto) typically have values close to zero because of their diversity. Rural areas (for example, northern Ontario) are unlikely to specialize in business services, but high-income cities near metropolitan regions often have high values (for example, Red Deer and Airdrie, Alberta).

To properly interpret this map, please consult the text Data and Mapping Notes.