RESEARCH ON EMPLOYMENT DISTANCE FOR FARM HOUSEHOLD IN RURAL AREA OF CENTRAL CHINA——A Case Study for Three Sample Villages in Henan Province
GAO Geng-He1,2, LI Xiao-Jian1,3
1. College of Environment and Planning, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China;
2. College of Environment and Tourism Science, Nanyang Normal University, Nanyang 473061, China;
3. Research Center on Sustainable Development, Henan University of Finance and Economics, Zhengzhou 450002, China
Abstract Employment distance is an important content of employment location. The study on employment distance of farm household is the basis of understanding space rule of farmer employees. Through the case study on three example villages in Henan province, authors of this paper find that the employment distance is scattered overall and clustered partly. The overall decentralization shows that the distribution of the employment places has the property of multiplicity, and the partial concentration shows that the farmer employees choose the employment places in cluster manner. Against the background of modern communication and transportation, distance has complex significance on migrant number. Migrants always concentrate in some cities with more developed manufacture industry. The number of migrants is not always the case in which it decreases with the increase of distance. The physical cost of migration has been the subordinate factor on migration distance. The distance factor isn't as important as economic factor. The proportion of employees shows the pattern of "U" with the change of employment distance. The employees concentrate in some employment places. The factors affecting employment outside one's hometown include personal character, family situation and community condition. The method of Binary Logistic Regression is used to analyze the factors for choice of employment distance. The paper holds that main factors influencing employment distance are age, family type, the generations in a family, the number of students and relation network. Generally, the farmer employees choose employment location by taking all the factors of personal character, family situation and community condition into consideration comprehensively. Among these factors, reducing the cost of family management and avoiding the migration risk are the key factors to be considered. So, the government should attach importance to the development of social security and socialized service industry, regulate the market running reduce migration risk to facilitate the rational flow of farmer employees. Taking typical rural areas of Central China as study samples, the authors reveal the general law of employment distance and its influence factors. The conclusion has certain universality, but whether it could be used into larger scope and other areas needs further research.
2008, Vol. 23 
