Two North Carolina Commuting Patterns

TrHIS study examines the commuting patterns of production workers at two industrial establishments in eastern North Carolina. Each of the two plants investigated is situated in the area of Kinston, a city of nearly 30,000 population, and together they account for well over half of the manufacturing employment in the county centered on that city.' One of the establishments, a producer of synthetic fiber,2 employs approximately 2200 persons and is noted for its aboveaverage wages; it employs workers who commute from points within a broad area extending out 40 miles and more. The other plant, a shirt factory,8 employs about 900 persons, and is considered below-average in its wages; it draws much of its labor from the area in the immediate vicinity of the plant. The two industrial facilities thus provide a broad spectrum of wages and commuting distances and facilitate an examination of wages and other factors as variables affecting the pattern of commuting of industrial workers in