Potential Job Creation and Resource Dependance in Rural Finland

Despite strong secular economic growth after the crisis of 1990-93, most of rural Finland has continued to face severe job losses. By applying small-area analysis, this paper seeks to explain why some rural areas inevitably experience declining employment while others prosper and grow even faster than urban areas. The variation of job creation in rural small areas derives from local economic conditions, local demographic structure, proximity to larger centers, and natural conditions. Contrary to expectations, the coldest areas with nature reserves have passed the worst job loss. Those areas had a lower burden of declining primary industries than traditional agro-forest areas, and because of tourism, industry has expanded in some places in Lapland. The dependence of an area on the primary sector is a good indicator of the highest rural job losses during the urban-centric economic growth period. Especially the most resource dependent areas have lagged behind and fail in job creation on account of their uncompetitive industrial environment. Persistent labor surplus plagues such areas, implying that established policy measures have been unable to restructure and modernize traditional rural areas. Since Finnish rural and regional policies have been being inefficient they should be reformed especially in resource-based areas in a fundamental way.