FB73: Making Strategic Jobs Count: Addressing Issues of Spatial Inequality Authors: Sharon Biermann & Kirsten Martinus Summary of Key Findings  Planning to meet long-term State Government targets for job distribution within Greater Perth should differentiate between ‘strategic’ and ‘population-following’ job types.  Of the 831,000 jobs in Greater Perth in 2016, 31% are classified as strategic and 69% as population-following.  Population-following jobs are more likely to be evenly spread across a region due to their relationship with population growth, whereas strategic jobs are linked to key industries and may require focused planning support for development.  Concentrating on strategic jobs ensures policy is adaptive enough to address both employment self-sufficiency and the reality of geographical concentrations of strategic industries.  Targeting strategic job distribution across a city, as well as travel accessibility to job opportunities, means a focus on fewer, key jobs with a greater chance of success.  Strategic jobs have complex location requirements but disruptive changes to how we work and travel are likely to alter the geography of jobs and travel in cities, making it more vital than ever to think strategically how we plan for work across a metropolitan area. Introduction Planning of metropolitan and regional spatial economies is faced with the interesting task of (re)creating cities and regions along some idealised form of how a city might be organised. To do this, planners employ statutory and strategic tools to shape the aesthetic and functionality of places as urban clusters, balancing people (workers and residents), business and industry, government and the environment. The tools used to deliver specific outcomes are based on standardised and simplified assumptions to reduce real-life complexities (Albrechts, 2015), which in some cases (re)produce spatial ‘bias’ (Godet, 2000; Martinus & Biermann, 2018; Swyngedouw et al., 2002). Questions have arisen on the over-use of planning tools by authorities, such as employment-housing targets, to evenly distribute jobs and housing throughout a metropolitan region (cf. Bunker, 2015) or land use zones, which both protect property rights and set up exclusive zones (Watson, 2009). This FACTBase focuses on the employment planning target that has been used to shape job and housing distribution throughout Greater Perth for over 60 years – the self-sufficiency ratio of Greater Perth’s (Metropolitan and Peel region) planning schemes. The ratio used is essentially a simple jobs–housing balance, and – as argued in FACTBase Bulletin 46 (Martinus & Biermann, 2016) – has worked to exacerbate spatial inequality, rather than reduce it (cf. Forster, 2006; Martinus & Biermann, 2018; Zhou et al., 2017). Indeed, as noted by Martinus and Biermann (2016), the value of using employment self- sufficiency (ESS) and employment self-containment (ESC) as planning targets “will be enhanced by better understanding different types of jobs and, more specifically how to attract high-value high-skilled jobs … to the sub-regions” (Martinus & Biermann, 2016, p. 7). This FACTBase discusses a different approach to the current self-sufficiency target used by the Western Australian planning authorities by differentiating job types to encourage the spatial targeting of strategic jobs associated with high-skill, high-income and high-productivity jobs. It differs from current targets, which focus on the redistribution of job numbers, that is, it is a quantity based approach. This FACTBase first examines the overall distribution of jobs and housing across Greater Perth and highlights four key influential factors. It then distinguishes strategic and population-following employment types and presents their spatial occurrence across the region. Finally, conclusions in relation to policy implications are provided, with a call for a revised approach to employment targeting, particularly in the context of COVID-19 where work location is no longer clearly defined. Spatial Planning for Employment and Housing Balance in Greater Perth