Data Collection for Sub-national Statistics (Labour Market Areas) Yrjö Palttila Kick-off meeting, 5 April 2016, Luxemburg

Contents Background of the action Objectives of the action Finland’s current travel-to-work areas (1) Finland’s current travel-to-work areas (2) Finland’s current travel-to-work areas (3) Improve IT tools to facilitate the implementation of the method Assess the feasibility of implementation of the EU method Define LMAs based on the EU method Final technical report and the use of the results of the project The planned timetable of the Finnish LMA project 5 April 2016 Yrjö Palttila

Background of the action In the background of the action is the need for comparable functional areas in EU-wide territorial policy analyses The NUTS cross-national regions cover the whole EU territory, but they are usually regional administrative areas, which are the result of historical circumstances The present national definitions of travel-to-work areas are not consistent in different countries One of the EU-wide efforts for comparability of functional areas has been the Urban Audit’s Larger Urban Zones (LUZ) (or Functional Urban Areas, FUA) LUZ-areas are often based on commuting around cities, but the basis of the LUZ definitions used to vary between countries Besides LUZ-areas do not cover all the travel-to-work areas 5 April 2016 Yrjö Palttila

Objectives of the action To familiarize with the R script of the EU (TTWA) method To encode the TTWA algorithm from R language to SAS language To define the Finnish Labour Market Areas (LMAs), which are based on the harmonised definition To compare the proposed Finnish LMAs with Finland’s current national travel-to-work areas The results of the action will be documented The task does not include defining of cross-border LMAs 5 April 2016 Yrjö Palttila

Finland’s current travel-to-work areas (1) On 1 January 2015, the classification contained 41 travel-to-work areas comprising a total of 224 municipalities 93 municipalities lay outside travel-to-work-areas 5 April 2016 Yrjö Palttila

Finland’s current travel-to-work areas (2) Bases on the data on commuting in the register-based employment statistics A municipality is considered to be a central municipality if at least one municipality commutes to it, and fewer than 25 per cent of its employed persons commute to areas outside the central municipality A surrounding municipality belongs to the travel-to-work area if at least 10 per cent of its labour force commute to the central municipality However, the municipality can belong to only one travel-to-work area; it belongs to that travel-to-work area to which is commuted more The municipality can also belong to a travel-to-work area through some other municipality 5 April 2016 Yrjö Palttila

Finland’s current travel-to-work areas (3) The notes of LMA Study 2012 concerning Finlands national method: A. It is a core-based hierarchical clustering procedure with a very simple linkage criterion: only the links between central elements of each cluster are considered. B. Contiguity is not a restriction and non-contiguous travel-to-work areas are accepted (only a few cases in practice). C. Travel-to-work areas do not have to fulfil any criteria apart from having a central municipality and a hinterland (no minimum / maximum levels for self-containment, population or area). D. Travel-to-work areas with very low self-containment could be created, as the aggregated flows are not considered. For the same reason, municipalities could be assigned to travel-to-work areas to which few total workers commute, despite having stronger aggregated dependence to other neighbouring travel-to-work areas. 5 April 2016 Yrjö Palttila

Improve IT tools to facilitate the implementation of the method Statistics Finland is using the “SAS for Windows” statistical program the aim is to encode the TTWA algorithm from R language to SAS language the structure of the languages is quite different we are looking for a person who would know the R language well enough 5 April 2016 Yrjö Palttila

Assess the feasibility of implementation of the EU method the first aim is to assess the feasibility of implementation of the EU method the second aim is to assess the feasibility of the adaptation of the current method of Finland’s national travel-to-work areas to the proposed method when the results of testing the EU (TTWA) method and defining Finnish harmonised LMAs have been completed, the implementation of the harmonised definition of LMAs will be considered 5 April 2016 Yrjö Palttila

Define LMAs based on the EU method the aim is to test the EU (TTWA) method and define Finnish LMAs, which are based on the harmonised definition, and draw up documentation of the exact method used and the characteristics of the LMAs produced the register-based Employment Statistics of Statistics Finland, which are updated every year, will be used as source data the data of Employment Statistics include both the municipality code of a person’s place of residence and the municipality code of his/her working place 5 April 2016 Yrjö Palttila

Final technical report and the use of the results of the project The report on implementation of the action will give an overview of the results and deliverables provided The results of the project will be used in analysing the potential use of Finland’s harmonised LMA’s and Finland’s current travel-to-work areas. 5 April 2016 Yrjö Palttila

The planned timetable of the Finnish LMA project Starting date --- 1. June 2016 (M) Planned duration of the action --- 18 months Task 2. Improve IT tools to facilitate the implementation of the method; Deliverable: Improved IT tool --- M + 3 months Task 3. Assess the feasibility of implementation of the EU method; Deliverable: Feasibility study --- M + 9 months Task 4. Define LMAs based on the EU method; Deliverable: The lists of the LAU2s --- M + 15 months Presentation of the results of the project --- M + 18 months Final technical report on implementation of the action and financial statement --- the closing date of the action + 60 days 5 April 2016 Yrjö Palttila

Yrjö Palttila Kick-off meeting, Luxemburg, 5 April 2016