The financial crisis may be waning, but the parts of the country that have been hardest hit will see few jobs return, according to new employment analysis by the Economic Council of the Labour Movement, Arbejderbevægelsens Erhvervsråd (AE).
The analysis showed that while employment figures in Denmark are expected to rise by 22,000 people by 2015, few jobs will be found in southern Jutland, Funen, and the southern and western parts of Zealand.
The news is even worse for Bornholm, which is the only part of the country in which employment is expected to keep dropping.
“The government should be concerned about the development. There is a massive challenge in the areas that won’t see many new jobs in the next few years and and lead the way with the highest proportion of children who leave school without qualifications,” Lars Andersen, the head of AE, said to Politiken newspaper.
The number of people employed in Denmark has fallen by close to 175,000 people between 2008 and 2012 – a downward trajectory that has cost every tenth job in Funen, southern Zealand and western Zealand.
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Moving to the cities
And now the AE report shows that just 500 hundred new jobs are expected to be generated in southern Jutland by 2015 and 800 in Funen, and the southern and western parts of Zealand.
Meanwhile, four out of every five new jobs will be created in the Copenhagen and Aarhus areas. Aarhus and eastern Jutland are expected to see 6,900 new jobs, while the Copenhagen region will enjoy an additional 5,600 new positions.
According to AE, the trend indicates that the Danes should get accustomed to an unbalanced economic development where more and more business and jobs amass in the metropolitan areas – something that Carsten Hansen (S), the minister for city, housing and rural affairs, echoed earlier in the week.
The news comes on the heels of a new report by the independent city-planning institution, Dansk Byplanlaboratorium, which recommended a clean-up of stagnating towns experiencing a decline in population, empty housing and disrepair.
Read the entire AE report here (in Danish).
