Methodological Aspects of Studying Labor Commuting

Abstract

This article studies the approaches to identifying labor commuting, its relation to permanent migration, and development stages of research of this phenomenon. Studies of labor commuting started in the 1950s and 1960s both in the Soviet Union and abroad. Survey questionnaires and transportation statistics used to be the main source of information about this phenomenon. Domestic studies of labor commuting lagged behind foreign studies for a long time due to the small amount of information, while special research has been conducted since the 1960s–1970s in the United States and Europe. In recent years, this gap has been decreasing primarily due to the use of Big Data in Russian studies. This includes data from mobile service providers on movements of mobile users, which is one of the most credible and detailed sources of information about labor commuting today.