Mapping Social Exclusion: The Geography of Unemployment

Abstract

This paper analyses the relationship between the spatial distribution of unemployment in an urban area and economic growth. According to the hysteresis argument inertias build up in recessions that are not dispelled during periods of growth. The most common manifestation is the continued growth of long-term unemployment. Long durations of unemployment reduce skill levels, confidence, contacts and the chances of regaining paid work. This paper examines the possibility that these duration effects are also tied to the spatial distribution of unemployment, generating a form of spatial hysteresis. According to this argument clusters of unemployment that grow during recessions fail to shrink during periods of growth. These spatial concentrations of unemployment create a range of negative externalities that inhibit individuals in their search for employment. Using a GIS applied to census data a clustering statistic was employed to analyse the changing spatial distribution of the unemployed in the Wellington metropolitan regions over the period 1986 to 1996. Statistically significant clusters that persisted over the decade strongly support the spatial hysteresis argument.