Archetypes

The concept of industry Archetypes was introduced in Chapter 2, as coherent groupings of industries that share both economic and geographic characteristics. As key traded and/or knowledge-intensive industries, the Archetypes cluster or concentrate geographically, although the specific spatial patterns vary from type to type. We found that each Archetype has a distinct spatial pattern within the GGH. Understanding these patterns, as well as the economic transformations that are under way that shape them, will help the planners develop better plans and policy responses.

For example, in 2008 Elizabeth Currid and James Connolly looked at the spatial patterns of six advanced service industries across the 10 largest U.S. cities and found that they all cluster geographically within their urban regions.[1] Most highly clustered were arts and culture industries, followed by media, engineering/high tech, management, finance, and professional industries. The specific clustering patterns varied, however: arts, culture, and media industries tended to be clustered in downtowns only, while other industries located in several nodes across the urban region.

We have identified 12 Archetypes for the GGH, including one "Special" category comprising three individual industries, each with unique spatial patterns. Together, the Archetypes accounted for 1.46 million jobs in 2016 (see Table 7). Overall, the Archetypes saw a net decline in employment between 2006 and 2016, mostly due to the loss of almost 130,000 Other Manufacturing jobs during that period. This category aside, employment in the remaining Archetypes grew by 108,000 jobs, or 11 percent. There was nonetheless significant variation among the Archetypes: some saw significant growth (such as Soft Tech) while others declined (such as Hard Tech).

Table 7: Employment by Archetype GGH 2006 and 2016

	2006	2016	Change	% Change
Finance	228,150	275,300	47,150	20.7
High Order Business Services	98,215	123,345	25,130	25.6
Back Office	54,710	51,715	-2,995	-5.5
Arts & Design	102,645	112,665	10,020	9.8
Soft Tech	71,960	91,270	19,310	26.8
Hard Tech	72,810	51,225	-21,585	-29.6
Science-based	52,950	64,980	12,030	22.7
Higher Education	59,635	78,100	18,465	31.0
Logistics	25,170	32,635	7,465	29.7
Other Wholesaling	139,920	121,750	-18,170	-13.0
Special
Aerospace	10,815	13,150	2,335	21.6
Telecoms	25,400	32,035	6,635	26.1
Pharma	22,960	25,175	2,215	9.6
Other Manufacturing	516,255	386,480	-129,775	-25.1
Archetypes Total	1,481,595	1,459,825	-21,770	-1.5
Archetypes Total w/o Other Manufacturing	965,340	1,073,345	108,005	11.2
Total GGH core employment	2,300,015	2,375,465	75,450	3.3
Total GGH employment	3,437,935	3,710,915	272,980	7.9

The remainder of this chapter looks at each Archetype in turn, describing its characteristics, spatial patterns, and drivers of change. Some Archetype profiles have more analysis and information on key drivers than others, reflecting the state of the literature: some industries are the subject of more research than others. Future research will be needed to fill in the gaps on the less-well-understood Archetypes.

[1] Elizabeth Currid and James Connolly, "Patterns of knowledge: The geography of advanced services and the case of arts and culture," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 2008, 98 (2): 414-434.