Barcelona plays a prominent role in work commutes within the RMB:

• Nearly eight out of every ten workers in Barcelona do not need to commute out of the city to go to work.
• Between 26% and 45% of people in other RMB areas work in the city of Barcelona.
• Within the RMB, 61% of commuters go to or from Barcelona.
• Sectors such as professional activities (69.8%), finance and real estate (67.6%), creative work (67.4%), ICT and science (67.3%) and public institutions and international organizations (66.4%) are disproportionately concentrated within Barcelona.

There are minor differences in commuting patterns by demographic variables:

• Women are slightly more likely to live and work in the same city, while men are slightly more likely to commute out of their geographic area for work.
• Young people and those over the age of 55 work closer to home and commute out of their area less often, especially after the age of 65.
• Workers without a university education (except for those who did not complete secondary school) are more likely to work out of their city of residence.

We find different patterns between blue-collar and white-collar workers.

• Blue-collar jobs (such as industry workers, machine operators and elementary occupations) have the highest percentages of workers who commute out of their city of residence.
• Conversely, those who work in ICT and science or have administrative/office jobs are the least likely to commute out of their city of residence.

This tendency is also confirmed in sector-based analyses:

• In this regard, the sectors that involve the highest levels of commuting are industry (75.5% of workers commute out of their city of residence), wholesale (71%), construction (68.9%), transportation and storage (66.6%), administrative and support services (65.4%) and retail (63.4%).
• The sectors with the lowest average commuting levels include ICT and science (58%), public institutions and international organisations (56.2%), creative work (55.8%), finance and real estate (55.4%), education, health and social services (55.3%), other services (51.4%) and professional activities (50.8%).

These data suggest a dual pattern in which professions traditionally associated with manual or less skilled work have higher commuting levels than office or white-collar jobs.

• A notable exception is hospitality and tourism workers (52.8%), who have relatively low commuting levels even though this is predominantly manual work.