Regional employment evolutions in the European Union: A preliminary analysis

In recent years there has been considerable interest by academics and polic y makers in comparing the employment performance of the European Union with that of the US. In comparison to Europe, the US economy has generated jobs at a dramatically higher rate. However, what is perhaps not as obvious is that there have been significant regional variations in employment growth a cross the US. Regions which have been fast job creators have tended to stay that way through time and vice-versa for regions with relatively slower gr owth rates. Moreover, in response to economic shocks the relative regional pattern of employment evolution tends to reassert itself. The regional expe rience of the US takes on added significance in the context of the progress ive movement towards economic and monetary integration which has been under way in the EU since the early 1980s and a central question is whether the U S experience provides a guide to the pattern of regional employment change which is emerging across Europe. In particular, will regional employment ev olutions become increasingly divergent as Magnifico argued over 25 years ag o? In practice little is known about what the pattern of regional evolution s has been across the Member States of the EU and this paper seeks to ident ify, in a preliminary way, some of the major regional differences which hav e existed.