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C OOMBES MG, G REEN AE and O WEN DW (1988) Substantive issues in the definition of “localities”: evidence from sub-group local labour market areas in the West Midlands, Reg. Studies 22, 303–318. Local Labour Market Areas (LLMAs) are now widely accepted as the most appropriate areal units for analyses of spatial patterns of employment and unemployment. The most commonly used set of LLMAs in Britain are the Travel-To-Work Areas (TTWAs) of the Department of Employment. These areas are increasingly being used for locality studies that encompass not only labour and demand trends but also their social and political implications. However, TTWAs are defined on the basis of aggregate commuting patterns, which generalize substantial differences in the journey-to-work behaviour of different sections of the workforce. This paper compares the TTWAs, as revised in 1984, with LLMAs defined using the …