Commuting has been the focus of research on urban spatial structure in recent years. Owing to the lack of information about employment locations in Chinese census data, commuting research has typically relied on traditional data sources such as surveys and questionnaires. With the advancement of communication and geographic information technology, new ideas and technical means for commuting research have emerged. The peripheral clusters of a central city are an essential part of urban functions and are critical areas that affect residents’ commuting. We present a framework for analyzing the commuting characteristics of peripheral clusters around a central city based on mobile phone signaling data. We used the peripheral clusters around the central city of Tianjin as the research area for a case study based on this framework. The results show that the proportion of commuting within peripheral clusters around the central city of Tianjin is significant, and the overall commuting situation is excellent. Most peripheral clusters around the central city of Tianjin are in a relatively balanced state of employment and residence. The Xinli Cluster and Airport Logistics Park Cluster have slightly fewer residences. The Dongli Lake Cluster has a moderate shortage of job opportunities and a slight separation between job and housing availability.