The Impact of COVID-19 on the Jobs–Housing Dynamic Balance: Empirical Evidence from Wuhan between 2019, 2021, 2023

Lei Wu, Muxi Yuan, Fangjie Liu and Qiang Niu ()
Additional contact information
Lei Wu: School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Muxi Yuan: School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Fangjie Liu: School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430205, China
Qiang Niu: School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-19

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic, a significant public health emergency, has underscored the criticality of jobs–housing proximity. Static statistical research, however, struggles to uncover the mechanisms underlying jobs–housing balance, providing limited guidance for urban management. This paper adopts the concept of jobs–housing dynamic balance, analyzing the trends in jobs–housing balance in the metropolitan development area of Wuhan in the early and later period of the pandemic from the perspective of individual jobs–housing migration. Using mobile phone signaling data, we identified a stable population of 161,698 residents in June 2019, June 2021, and June 2023, and calculated jobs–housing synchronization and migration impact indices across seven regions. The study finds the following: (1) there is a pronounced misalignment of jobs–housing in the new cities of Wuhan’s suburbs, with clear asynchronous in-migration and out-migration; (2) COVID-19 initially led to a unidirectional exodus of the local population for job purposes, significantly contributing to regional jobs–housing imbalance, followed by a partial rebound in the later stages; and (3) the stability of jobs–housing balance in suburban new cities lacking policy support and comprehensive urban functions is worse, primarily due to insufficient employment resilience and the out-migration of the employed population. This paper puts forward a set of recommendations for the sustainable development of suburban new cities. It offers insights into the theoretical advancement of jobs–housing balance and the dynamic, refined transformation of urban studies, enhancing urban managers’ understanding of human–place interactions and new city construction.

Keywords: jobs–housing dynamic balance; residential migration; employment migration; Wuhan; resilience; public health emergency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/8/1299/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/13/8/1299/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:13:y:2024:i:8:p:1299-:d:1457788

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().