Spatial analysis of comparative advantage of major occupational groups of rural population in Iran

Introduction Regarding the fact that economic activities, in particular, and resources and facilities, in general, are poorly concentrated in terms of spatial distribution, every area requires a particular program corresponding to its specific conditions. In this way, before doing everything we need to identify the past and present situation of different regions based on appropriate scientific methods. The inequality between urban and rural areas is mostly originated from the insufficient knowledge of policies applied in these areas as well as policies taken to evaluate the impact of programs on different economic variables including employment. In this article we are trying to recognize deprived and non-deprived areas to help us study current status of employment in rural areas and making a relative balance between all parts of the country. In fact we are going to find the answers to the questions that: What are some comparative advantages of economic activity in rural areas? What is Gini coefficient of economic activities in rural areas than in the country? According to the comparative advantages of employment in the major occupational groups, how can we put different provinces in order? Methodology The aim of this article is to examine comparative advantages of rural areas in different provinces for every major economic area and evaluating the amount of regional balance in every economic section. This is an applied study accomplished by the use of descriptive- analytical method. Required data has been taken from the census of 1385 and 1390 in Statistical Center of Iran. Along with data processing and classification, employment status of major occupational groups in rural areas has been accounted using Lorenz curve and the Gini coefficient through Excel software. Moreover, geographical maps of comparative advantage of a variety of major occupational groups were drawn in ARC GIS software. Finally, rural population of different provinces was ranked based on different groups of economic activities, through the models of Standard factor, Topsis, factor analysis and clustering. The followings major occupational groups have been selected as Indicators for determining comparative advantage and regional balance to calculate the amount of employment in the provinces and rural areas. Discussion and conclusion We have selected 85 and 90 series as samples for the spatial analysis of the employment status in rural areas. Then, we have tried some working indicators on this group and analyzed its results. Results include some spatial patterns of working indicators in rural areas of Iran. In other words, it shows that almost in all major occupational parts of the country, there is no regional balance in the distribution of working population in rural areas: This type of inequality is more observable in the two sections of "Hospitality and catering" and "Real estate, renting and business activities "."Agriculture" is the only section containing comparative balance within different provinces. Comparing Gini coefficient of rural population to the total number of employers of different provinces in major occupational groups, it is understood that this indicator exceeds its total number in rural areas and it's still increasing. Only in "agriculture" sector of rural areas Gini coefficient is less than its total which implies giving less attention to rural areas of the country and poor investment in rural areas comparing to the rate of investment in the entire provinces over the recent years. Studying comparative advantages of different provinces in major occupational groups in rural population reveals the fact that there is a relatively observable advantage in 8 parts of Tehran province. After Tehran, there are the two provinces of Mazandaran and Kermanshah in 5 and 4 parts, respectively, and then Yazd, Booshehr, and Kohgilouye and Boyer-Ahmed in 3 parts of highly comparative advantages. Among the entire provinces, Tehran and Booshehr contains the least amount of comparative advantage of employment only in "agriculture" sector. Some provinces including Kerman in all its occupational groups, Sistan- Baloochestan in 8 parts, Kordestan in 5 parts, and Lorestan in 4 major occupational parts are among the deprived provinces in terms of job creation in major occupational groups.  Based on the results of the study, despite of lots of experimental and theoretical studies on geographical distribution of unemployment and regional employment which have been recently doing by researchers, there is still some regional inequalities. It can be deduced that Gini coefficient in rural areas has been rising from 1385 to 1390. In fact, regional differences of job creation are increasing in rural areas. Studying comparative advantages of major occupational groups in rural district of Tehran, Booshehr, Yazd, Esfahan, Khorasan-Razavi, Fars, Mazandaran, and Gilan shows observable comparative advantage of employment in these areas. Although, there is an inappropriate condition of employment in some provinces including Sistan-Baloochestan, Hormozgan, and Kohgilouye Boyer-Ahmed.