Accessibility of public employment services within large urban areas : a spatial approach

The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship between the accessibility of public employment services (PES) offices and unemployment rates in large urban areas of Spain. In total, there are 85 large urban areas in Spain encompassing 747 municipalities or 9.2% of all Spanish municipalities; 21 of these large urban areas are composed of just one municipality each, while the remaining 64 large urban areas are composed of two or more municipalities. The accessibility of public employment service offices in large urban areas is studied using a measure that considers competition as well as the number of offices and the size of their catchment areas. The results of our analysis support the existence of spatial spillovers in urban labor markets; consequently, the model must include this spatial process explicitly, and the results must be interpreted accordingly. Concerning the relationship between accessibility and the urban unemployment rate, we find significant and negative indirect and total effects, yet the direct effect is not found to be statistically significant.