CHANGES IN THE ACTIVE POPULATION STRUCTURE OF PETROŞANI DEPRESSION

Abstract

Numerous sociological and geographic studies insist on the consequences of industrial restructuring on the mining regions of Romania, in particular Petroşani Depression. The most widely known effects were social in nature, especially high unemployment rates. However, the demographic consequences of such a process are equally important, with visible short, medium, and long-time effects: emmigration, low birth rates, population decrease, changes in the demographic structure. Our paper intends to analyze the changes that took place within the occupational structure of the area in the last 27 years, caused by mine closings and massive worker layoffs. Despite the fact that the industrial sector, once the defining feature of the region, has been in continuous decline, it continues to employ a significant portion of the occupied population in the region. Overall however, according to statistical data, mining operations and activities are waning.

Keywords

• economic restructuring
• mining industry
• active population
• petroşani depression