Employment Diversification as a Determinant of Economic Resilience and Sustainability in Provincial Cities

Abstract

Differentiated response of selected economies to the global economic crisis caused by the collapse of the real estate market in the United States has drawn the attention of economists to the concept of economic resilience. At the same time, once again, it showed the importance of analysing and creating suitable conditions for sustainable development. Resilient economies are less exposed to the risk of economic crises or slowdowns, which is vital for ensuring stable incomes and high level of living standards. Therefore, the presented analysis was aimed at evaluating the level of economic resilience of provincial cities in Poland in relation to the situation on their labour markets. For this purposes, selected measures of the variation in the distribution feature (e.g., coefficient of variation) and the degree of structure diversification of the examined feature (Amemiya’s index) were used. Subsequently, using correlation analysis, the research determined whether any relationships could be observed between the investigated variables. The results of the research indicate that for provincial cities sub-regions in Poland, a statistically significant, moderate negative correlation could be observed between the degree of employment structure diversification in 2009 and the scale and scope of the collapse in the number of employed persons in subsequent years. This suggests that a high level of employment diversification restricted the level of economic resilience in this case.