Waikato regional economic profile - Waikato Regional Council

Residents of cities and rural hubs tend to work in the same town that they live in, whilepeople in satellite towns or rural areas are a lot more likely to commute. Ninety-nineper cent of Hamilton city commuters stay within Hamilton, compared with 42 per cent ofWaiuku commuters, as illustrated in figure 98.Figure 98: Town population and proportion who work in town (2006 Census)Commuter flows between urban and rural areas are illustrated in figure 99. The sizes ofthe blue circles represent relative populations of Waikato urban areas; red circles areurban areas outside the region. The arrows point to the destination of commuterjourneys to work. The green arrows show flows from rural areas and the orientation ofthe arrow is indicative of the largest flows only; some rural commuters come fromdifferent directions.There is an apparent divide between the Auckland and Hamilton labour markets in theWaikato district, with northern residents commuting to Auckland and the restcommuting to Hamilton or Huntly. There may be commuters from Hamilton to Aucklandbut the numbers are small enough that they have been confidentialised by StatisticsNew Zealand.There are no significant flows between the Waikato and Bay of Plenty regional labourmarkets, aside from some residents in the rural part of Rotorua district who commute toRotorua city. Taupō and Turangi are also relatively isolated from the rest of the region.This reflects analysis undertaken for the Ministry of Economic Development, whichindicates that from a labour market perspective Auckland, Hamilton and Taurangacities possess relatively insular economies, with a very low level of commuting betweenthe three cities. Patterns observed for business travel between the three cities werealso low and indicated relatively little face-to-face business activity taking placebetween the three cities. The analysis found that for both commuting and businesstravel, the low flows are at least in part a reflection of the considerable travel times anddistances between the three cities. 305305Paling et al (2011, p. 8).Doc # 2069885 Page 87