Belgium and Spain also display large variations. In Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, on the other hand, disparities are more evident at the level of smaller areas, indicating more localised labour market problems. The age, gender and skill compositions of regional populations account for only a fraction of the variation in unemployment. Thus, a specific regional dimension to the unemployment problem exists in some countries. The regional dimension may be linked to a number of unmeasured characteristics like accessibility to product and factor markets, unmeasured characteristics of labour supply and demand, and the efficiency of the institutions and support services available.
Regions also vary significantly in their capacity to generate employment.
Only a small proportion of regional employment variation can be attributed to the industry mix of regional activity. Again, other regional-specific characteristics are responsible for generating outcomes that more than offset the disadvantages or advantages stemming from the industrial structure. Internal migration appears to respond to unemployment differentials in the direction predicted by economic theory, but at too slow a pace to facilitate rapid adjustment. Among the four main service subsectors, employment growth was more rapid in producer and social services than in distributive and personal services. However, significant differences remain and convergence in the mix of service employment at the level of sixteen disaggregated service activities is considerably weaker.