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ABSTRACTThis study has three purposes. The first is to determine, for the 30 largest U.S. metropolitan areas in 1980. the relationship among population size, the number of major corporations headquartered in these centers, and the number of subsidiaries located there. The expectation is that there will be positive relationships in all cases. Second, this study, based on variations in the relationships examined above, sets forth a corporate classification of the 30 metropolitan areas and identifies common characteristics and locations among six categories of centers. Finally, using the six‐fold classification of centers, metropolitan employment growth between 1980 and 1986 is analyzed, especially job growth in services and in finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE). The six‐fold classification proves useful in understanding employment growth in these 30 centers during the 1980s and, with modifications, perhaps beyond.

Despite an increase of 200,000 jobs in business and professional services in the Atlanta metropolitan area between 1982 and 1997, the central city saw employment as a percentage of these services drop by approximately 20 percent. Most growth occurred in the northern suburbs, resulting in a dispersed distribution of business and professional services in Atlanta. To understand the spatial distribution and suburbanization of business and professional services in Atlanta, regression analysis was carried out for 1982 and 1992. Flexible female workers, corporate headquarters, well –educated professionals, and highway access turned out to be important location determinants, with the latter two being increasingly responsible for the suburbanization of business and professional services.