This paper explores various processes that may organise the suburbanisation of economic activity, by way of a study of employment in the Montreal metropolitan region over the 1996-2001 period. It tests the idea that the Central Business District is losing its command functions to suburban employment centres, and the Idea that employment growth is scattered haphazardly across the metropolitan area. The authors conclude that in Montreal accessibility, agglomeration and centrality continue to guide the location of new jobs. The idea that new processes are guiding the location of economic activity does not, therefore, seem to be generalisable to all cities.