SPATIAL DIFFERENTIATION OF EMPLOYMENT STRUCTURE IN SHENYANG CITY FROM 1990S
DONG Li-jing1,2, ZHANG Ping-yu3
1. College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China;
2. Department of Management, Shenyang Normal University, Shenyang 110034, China;
3. Institute of Northeast Geography and Agricultural Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130012, China
Abstract：As an old industrial city preferentially constructed in the early times of the P.R. China, Shenyang has put an emphasis on the development of the secondary industry from economic structure perspective. In addition, it has been suggested that its employment structure focuses on the industry. With the reform of enterprises deepened constantly, such industries established in the planned economy mode, especially state-owned enterprises (SOEs), have brought a series of problems, such as increased unemployment rates and laid-off employees. Shenyang has thus become one of the major cities with severe employment problems in China. In this study, we used the data from the fourth (1990) and the fifth (2000) population census to analyze spatial differences of labor force structure and industry structure in Shenyang from different scales, including urban area, inner suburb, outer suburbs and periphery counties. The results indicates that workforce of Shenyang city has been transferring from an old employment space to a new employment space. The degree of suburbanization is remarkable, especially in the employee of the industrial, construction and the tertiary industry (e.g. the communications, transportation, post and telecommunications industry, commerce, storage industry and management). Such a phenomenon may result from the suburbanization of population and industry. Furthermore, there is evidence that the old urban area is renovated by the policy of diffusing, and shifting some traditional industries or adopting to industrial dispersion to promote the development of the backward areas, and the development of the newly developed area makes the suburbs be a center of productivity and population. It provides further support for our findings of suburbanization process of population and industry. Therefore, it can be concluded that the reconstruction of employment space associated with suburbanization of population and industry plays an important role in altering urban spatial structure of Shenyang, such as the reconstructions in physical space and social space. Currently, during the special transition of urban society in Shenyang, the divisions of physical space and social space are being aggravated, land functional districts such as industrial area and inhabited region have obvious trends and social stratification and community reconstruction are going on.
