ABSTRACT
Office activities have always been an important function of the core area and particularly the city centre. In recent years their relative importance has increased as other activities such as manufacturing and warehousing have declined. For much of the post-war period in North America and Western Europe, economic development has been associated with a progressive shift of employment away from, first, agricultural activities and then, more recently, manufacturing industry, in favour of the tertiary sector, as the transition towards a post-industrial society has occurred. Characterising the nature of office activity in the United States is rendered difficult by the country's very considerable size and the related inter-regional variations which exist in fields such as economic structure, the performance of the local economy and administrative organisation. Arguably, government intervention, in an attempt to control office development, has also affected inter-regional growth rates.
