Finnish socio-economic grid data, GIS and the hidden geography of unemployment

The use of georeferenced data in geographical research into unemployment re veals internal fluctuations and differences within localities. The observat ion unit in the present paper is a I x I km grid cell. The results obtained here indicate that the rate of unemployment in Finland during 1993-95 was highest in the most sparsely populated cells, The duration of unemployment in 1993 was longest in the centres and suburbs of major cities, and it was also very long in the most sparsely populated cells. In the largest ten cit ies, the areas with the highest unemployment rate mainly remained the same during 1989-96; more than 60% of the cells with the highest unemployment ra tes in 1989 also fell within the same quartile in 1996, Restricting the ava ilability of grid-based information would have a contrasting impact on anal ysis. If data on cells containing five people or fewer had not been availab le, it would have meant a loss of 42.3% of the total inhabited cells and a 2.4% loss in population.