The Demography of Employment in a Swedish County Council: Estimation and Mapping of Manpower Statistics in Östergötland

Sammanfattning: The changing requirements in the modern labour market have led to a new form of economic geography of employment, where skills, wages and the uncertainty of employment play a primary role in the spatial division of labour. The main purpose of this project is to investigate the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) as a tool to illustrate employment and unemployment in Östergötland County for giving information on the development of the labour market. In addition, the use of GIS for population data analysis with the help of Oracle’s map viewer is closely examined. This descriptive thesis reveals that the labour market is characterized by the geographic extension of the market and its determination by how far the supply and demand forces go and the important role that GIS plays in illustrating the distribution of workforce in Östergötland’s labour market. GIS is an analytical tool for employer/employee demographics that can be used for visualization but also for analysis and pre-processing purposes with the use of graphic tools. With the use of thematic maps, GIS can visualise spatial data with labour data according to certain demographic criteria. GIS technology has ways of mapping thematically the local labour market demand and supply. In addition, it is capable of constructing a comprehensive workforce development system that can integrate the job seekers and employers. GIS can facilitate the development of visual web-based mapping systems that allow users to investigate and find employees within various industries.