EMPLOYMENT CHANGES IN LORESTAN: USING SHIFT - SHARE ANALYSIS

Since the issue of human resource employment plays an important role in regional planning and economic growth of the countries, therefore it is necessary to find out the mainstream of factors affecting on employment growth within different economic sectors of the country. Lorestan province, despite abundant natural resources, climate variability, water, vast plains, various minerals, abundant and rich human resource and suitable potential of tourism attraction possess a poor status in the country in national level and over the years, has failed to earn a good share of the national economy. The main objective of present study is to investigate the proportionate and disproportionate growth rate of employment in Lorestan province of Iran during the period of 2001-2011, compared to the rest of the country (Reference Sector) at national level, using Shift-Share and Location Quotient models. By measuring Location Quotient (LQ) coefficients, the results show that from the view point of employment rate and its share in different economic sectors, the agricultural sector still remains to be a basic and fundamental sector (LQ=1.81) compared to other sectors of industry (LQ=0.79) and services (LQ=0.85) of Lorestan province, during the period of study. Generally as a policy making result, it is concluded that the path way designed to achieve relative advantages in agricultural sector of Lorestan, proved to be just in the way of relative advantages policy designed for the country. While it could not happen for Lorestan to keep pace with national policy designed for other two sectors of the economy, i.e. industrial and services.