Measuring Regional Differences in Labour Market Sensitivity in Hungary

The core of this study is the development of a statistical tool for measuring the regional labour market sensitivity. The goal is to present and apply a general index, which can be used in other disciplines as well. An additional objective is the evaluation of the social and economic processes affecting the labour market, and the identification of highly vulnerable areas exposed to crises. In this study, sensitivity means the relative volume of responsiveness to the labour market changes in the examined areas. Former spatial statistical methods have tried to identify the regional differentiating factors of unemployment; however, they did not reveal the extent to which the villages and towns were exposed to economic and employment changes. A new index provides this opportunity. It evaluates the processes of regional unemployment, the degree of exposure to the crisis and the employment mechanisms with particular regard to public employment programmes. The research explores and evaluates the specific labour market vulnerability and macro-regional structure of the settlements of Hungary with the help of the developed index. Thus at least three new elements of the national spatial structure will be revealed which enables us to prepare for socio-economic changes similar to the latest crisis.