ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

LABOUR MARKET OF THE DEVELOPING REGION INSOUTH-WEST OLTENIAMARIN BĂBEANULabour market in Romania was formed in the second half of the 19 thcentury and the first two decades of the 20 th century. The third, fourth and fifthdecades of the 20 th century were characterized by a considerable increase of thevolume and importance of the national labour market; during socialism (1948-1989), the spontaneous adjusting mechanism of this market was replaced by thecentralized planning system of the training, distribution and use of the labour;after the events in December 1989 there have been initiated the actions regardingrestructuring the free labour market.Re-institutionalizing the free labour market in Romania formed part ofthe general process of reform and transition. Work legislation has been reelaboratedand improved; new institutions of the work market were created andbecame functional; economical-social structures to support free labour marketwere created; market mentalities and conducts of labour bidders and requesterswere deep-rooted.Labour market is imperfect and inhomogeneous, it manifests like astructured and segmented market, which becomes functional only withininterdependencies between its structural components, between local and regionalmarkets, between national and international work market.Regional markets are crucial for the national labour market’s functioningand equilibrium. That is why, research in the regional profile of the labour marketsupplies, in a coherent manner, information regarding demo-social-economicalcorrelations of every developing national region, allowing at the same time,comparisons among functional parameters of different regional force markets.The developing region in the South-West of Oltenia, covering Dolj, Corj,Mehedinti, Olt and Valcea counties, with a population of 2.3 million people, in2005, occupies 10.7% of Romanian’s population, 11.4% of the active andoccupied population, as well as 10.5% of the total number of unemployed people.The participation potential of a developing region to the national workforce market is assessed mainly according to three indicators: active population,occupied population and unemployment level. The first indicator broadlyreflects the work force offer; the second one reflects the work force request andthe third one, the quantum of the disequilibrium between the first two indicators.Unemployment represents the price which inevitably has to be paid in order toARHIVELE OLTENIEI, Serie nouă, nr. 21, 2007, p. 357–364