Using Swedish longitudinal micro-data, the aim of this paper is to analyse how regional economies respond to crises. This is made possible by linking gross employment flows to the notion of regional resilience. Our findings indicate that despite a steady national employment growth, only the three metropolitan regions have fully recovered from the recession of 1990. Further, we show evidence of high levels of job creation and destruction in both declining and expanding regions and sectors, and that the creation of jobs is mainly attributable to employment growth in incumbent firms, while job destruction is primarily due to exits and micro-plants. Although the geography of resistance to crises and the ability of adaptability in the aftermath vary, our findings suggest that cohesive (i.e., with many skill-related industries) and diverse (i.e., with a high degree of unrelated variety) regions are more resilient over time. We also find that resistance to future shocks (e.g., the 2008 recession) is highly dependent on the resistance to previous crises. In all, this suggests that the long-term evolution of regional economies also influences their future resilience.

Using matched employer-employee data on roughly 429,000 workers made redundant from large plant closures or major downsizing in Sweden between 1990 and 2005, this paper analyses the role of the regional industry mix (specialization, related and unrelated variety) in the likelihood of returning to work. The results show that a high presence of same or related industries speeds up the re-employment process, while high concentrations of unrelated activities do not. The role of related activities is particularly evident in the short run and in regions with high unemployment. Consequently, the prospect of successful diversification is enhanced in regions with related industries.

This paper studies redundant workers’ industrial and geographical mobility, and the consequences of post-redundancy mobility for regional policy strategies. This is accomplished by means of a database covering all workers who became redundant in major shutdowns or cutbacks in Sweden between 1990 and 2005. Frequencies of industrial and geographical mobility are described over time, and the influence of some important characteristics that make workers more likely to be subject to particular forms of mobilities are assessed. We find that re-employment rates vary extensively across industries and time. Whereas going back to the same or related industries is the most common re-employment strategy among workers who find a new job in the first year, workers who do not benefit from quick re-employment are increasingly squeezed out to new job fields and regions. Older workers and workers with high vested interest in their original industries usually employ a ‘same-industry/same-region’ strategy. This most frequent, and perhaps often most attractive, same-industry strategy comes at a cost, however. Individuals who instead pursue other mobility strategies have a lower risk of suffering from another major redundancy in the future. Thus, in terms of regional policy, strategies promoting diversification to related industries after major redundancies seem to be much more important than trying to retain workers in their old industry. In this case the route via education (university or vocational training) is important, as it increases the likelihood of successfully changing industry at time of re-employment.

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