in collecting comparable data on the sectoral structure of municipal employment, although this problem was generally overcome through various means.1<sup>2</sup> 43. The second stage of the selection of municipalities was based on the existence of alternative economic activity or the possibility of developing it. Truly isolated mining communities that were developed with the sole purpose of mining coal and in which no other meaningful economic base was developed (such as the mining towns in Russia's Far North) were excluded from consideration as research sites in view of the limitations their isolation places on the options available to these communities for future development. Such communities, however, constitute a small part of the total of coal municipalities. For similar reasons, the relatively small number of mining towns with good future prospects for coal production were also excluded as potential research sites even if several mines had been closed, as the continued dominance of the coal sector in the local economy would be the determining factor in the local labor market dynamics and in local strategic planning, thereby rendering these locations of limited relevance to the given research.

44. As a final stage in the selection prdcess, the quantitative criteria were augmented with such qualitative considerations as the imminence of local elections, proximity to other towns with more diversified economies, the desirability of regional variation in the final selection, etc. By design, two municipalities were selected in each country; in the case of Romania, circumstances allowed for the inclusion of a third municipality in the research, which made possible the selection of a greater range of municipalities.

45. Table 2 provides an overview of the seven municipalities selected as research sites, with data on the population, number of mines closed in the restructuring period, and data on the dynamic of the coal mining workforce as a share of overall municipal workforce. The coal municipalities in Romania are of note both because they are smaller, by far, than the research sites in the other two countries (where, indeed, few coal municipalities are as small as their Romanian counterparts), and for the considerably greater share of the coal sector employed in the overall municipal workforce in the municipalities in Romania. These two factors reflect certain historical peculiarities of the development of the Romanian coal industry as noted earlier, when the industry underwent a great expansion and labor was attracted from around the country to the coal regions under the previous regime's drive for self-sufficiency. The coal towns in the two former Soviet republics, in contrast, were established as mining centers in the more distant past and are at a more mature stage of their development, with significant in-migration having abated long ago and greater diversification having been introduced in the local economies. At the sarne time, it is possible that methodological differences in data collection also account for some of the cross-country difference in the figures for coal sector employment provided below'<sup>3</sup> .

> 12 In the Soviet Union, data on coal sector employment were maintained without regard to the municipality, as this as such was not part of the sector. While such data have gradually become more available in the post-Soviet area, inconsistencies in their collection remain, as well as discrepancies between data reported by various agencies in the same location (municipal governments versus local branches of the national employment office, for example.) **13** For example, in the Russian mining city of Kiselevsk (not a research site), in the assessment of the deputy mayor for economic affairs (who is herself a veteran of the coal industry), although the official employment statistics indicated a 35% share of the coal sector in total municipal employment (2000), when coal sector employed who for various reasons are classified under other sectors are considered, coal sector employment increases to 48% of total municipal employment.

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