Forces affecting employment dynamics in Groningen; Case study in a lagging rural region in the Netherlands
In this report the focus is on employment dynamics in Drenthe since the beginning of the 1980s. This study is part of an EU wide research project on employment development in leading and lagging rural regions of the EU. Total employment in Drenthe increased by 24,500 jobs or with over 20% in the period 1984-1996. Nearly 40% of employment growth occurred in the community, social and personal services sector, 25% in the trade, restaurant and hotel sector, 14% in the financial services sector, 13% in the construction sector and 12% in the manufacturing sector. A substantial part of employment growth consists of part time jobs. Employment in the agricultural sector declined by over 2,000 jobs in this period. Employment development is the result of many interacting factors. As strengths have been identified the beautiful landscape, which attracts tourists, labourers, entrepreneurs and retirees, the location of the region near the city of Groningen, the strategies of policymakers to create favourable preconditions for firm settlement, like zones of economic activities, low land prices and investment subsidies. Weak points in the employment situation are the peripheral location of Drenthe relatively to main economic centres, the cautious and risk averting attitude of many entrepreneurs and the relatively thinness of the economic structure. Opportunities for further employment growth are the congestion in the Randstad, improvements in infrastructure like the doubling of the N37 and the development of tourism. Threats are competitiveness with low wage countries and changes in EU agricultural and structural policies.
Employment in leading and lagging rural regions of the EU
In the RUREMPLO project an analysis is made of the development of employment in the rural regions of the EU against the background of a downward trend in the agricultural labour force. For this purpose a quantitative analysis of socio-economic characteristics in all EU regions during the 1980s and 1990s and 18 case studies in 'leading' and 'lagging' rural regions in 9 EU Member States have been carried out in order to reveal forces behind employment dynamics. This resulted in a series of research findings that are relevant for the future design and delivery of rural employment policies in Europe. In this report a summary is presented of the methodology and the findings of the RUREMPLO project.
Employment growth in rural regions of the EU; A quantitative analysis for the period 1980-1995
In this report it is examined whether rural regions in the EU with a relatively high (low) employment growth in the 1980s and early 1990s have some common socio-economic characterics, which can contribute to the explanation of their employment performance. We have grouped the socio-economic characterics around the headings "local resources", "economic activities" and "supply of labour". We base our analysis on 465 regions in the EU 15, which we have divided into three groups: most rural regions, intermediate regions and most urban regions. Within each of these groups we have made a further distinction into leading (i.e. high non-agricultural employment growth) and lagging (i.e. low non-agricultural employment growth) regions. The analysis shows that leading rural regions have both growth of industrial employment and services employment and show a population growth as well, whereas in lagging rural regions population growth stagnates. Besides, leading rural regions tend to have a lower unemployment rate than lagging regions and tend to have a higher infrastructure endowment (highways, railways and waterways). On the other hand for quite a number of socio-economic indicators hardly any differences have been found between leading and lagging rural regions, like participation rates, education level of the population, average firm size, share of female employed in total employment and the share of farm holders with other gainful activities.