Regional Labor Markets (regional + labor_market)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Regional labor markets in Finland: Adjustment to total versus region-specific shocks

PAPERS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2002
Sari Pekkala
Labor market; employment; unemployment; migration; shock adjustment Abstract This article analyses regional labor market adjustment in the Finnish provinces during 1976,2000. We investigate the inter-relations of employment, unemployment, labor force participation, and migration to see how a change in region-specific and total labor demand is adjusted. The analysis reveals that region-specific labor demand shocks adjust mainly via participation, whereas total shocks are adjusted by unemployment. The region-specific component of labor demand shock has shorter-lived effects on unemployment and participation, but its effect on employment is permanent. Conversely, total shocks leave no permanent effect. Migration is more important in the region-specific case where, after a few years, it acquires a large role in the adjustment process. [source]


Time To Work: Job Search Strategies and Commute Time for Women on Welfare in San Francisco

JOURNAL OF URBAN AFFAIRS, Issue 2 2001
Karen Chapple
The major policy approaches to welfare-to-work attempt to facilitate the transition into the workforce by providing job search assistance and transportation subsidies. Although these policies help some women on welfare, they fail to respond to the needs of most, who rely disproportionately on social contacts to find jobs, seek to minimize commutes, and lack the educational attainment that would help them penetrate the regional labor market. This article uses in-depth interviews with 92 women on welfare in San Francisco, as well as a binomial logit model, to examine the relationship between job search strategies and employment characteristics. The findings suggest that low-income women with children are more likely to rely on contacts than women without children, because they seek to work close to home. For most women, building connections to employers, improving human capital, and increasing the density of neighborhood economic and social activity will make jobs more accessible. [source]


Moonlighting in a High Growth Economy: Evidence from U.S. State-Level Data

GROWTH AND CHANGE, Issue 4 2002
Mark Partridge
Despite the prevalence of multiple jobholding, there is relatively little research into its causes. Existing research has tested the predictions of standard labor models with micro data. Yet, there has been virtually no research into the relationship between moonlighting and structural differences in regional labor markets such as wages and employment growth. In this manner, this study examines the large differences in multiple jobholding rates across U.S. states. The findings indicate that multiple jobholding acts as a short-term shock absorber to cyclical changes. However, in the long-term, these effects dissipate, indicating that moonlighting plays a similar role as do changes in unemployment and labor-force participation to regional labor market shocks. Conversely, multiple jobholding rates are inversely related to average weekly earnings. Thus, job growth accompanied by real wage (and productivity) growth may result in a decline in multiple jobholding, further exacerbating potential labor shortages. Other key factors found to influence multiple jobholding include occupational structure and education. [source]


Evolution of the Labor Market in a Regional City: The Changing Economic Performance of Emigrants from Mexico City,

JOURNAL OF REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2005
Ricardo Sabates
Using labor-income trajectories of emigrants from Mexico City, the paper analyzes how the labor market in a regional city, Leon, evolves. Results from the econometric model suggest that migrants' labor-income trajectories differ between the large agglomeration and the regional city in an early stage of the evolution of the labor market, but converge in a later stage. Specifically, the slope of the earning function for recent migrants is steeper and statistically different from the slope for early migrants. The findings presented in this paper enrich the existing theory by providing microfoundations to a typically macroeconomic area of research and enable policy makers to better understand the processes underpinning the evolution of regional labor markets. [source]


Part-time workers and economic expansion: comparing the 1980s and 1990s with U.S. state data,

PAPERS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 1 2003
Mark D. Partridge
Part-time employment; involuntary part-time; regional labor markets; labor shortages Abstract. Economics know little about how the role of part-time workers affect regional labor market dynamics during economic expansion. This study examines this issue using U.S. state data from the 1980s and 1990s. Compared to the 1980s, the labor market during the late 1990s is associated with widespread labor shortages, making this an excellent comparison of how part-time employment responds to economic growth. One key finding is that part-time employment was less responsive to job growth during the 1990s than the 1980s, especially for women. Several explanations are put forth, including firm responses to labor shortages, employer perceptions of inferior part-time worker characteristics and welfare reform. [source]


Time distances and labor market integration

PAPERS IN REGIONAL SCIENCE, Issue 3 2002
Börje Johansson
Accessibility; regional labor markets; commuting Abstract This article investigates how time distances within and between municipalities determine the spatial extent of local and regional labor markets. As time distances change, the extent of the labor market will also change. Diminishing time distances will bring about increases in labor market size by integrating formerly spatially separate markets. We analyze such processes using accessibility measures derived from a random choice preference function approach. Accessibility is measured in terms of number of jobs, labor supply and supply of service functions. The aim of the work is to illustrate the usefulness of the purpose-specific accessibility measure we introduce. [source]