Labour mobility in the public sector: the impact of job opportunities

This paper investigates the mobility of highly skilled labour, using doctors in public hospitals in Denmark as an example. From the perspective of regional development, the concentration of human capital is one of the contributors to regional growth and consequently to inequality between places, being associated most often with differences in economic growth between regions. The decentralisation of highly skilled public jobs to even out the concentration of human capital could be one way to stimulate growth outside city regions. However, such initiatives are somewhat dependent upon the cooperation of the highly skilled public employees, whose preferences have been little studied thus far. Based on data from a survey of 1600 publicly employed doctors, PLUM regression modelling was applied to test the relative significance of four professional preferences influencing choice of workplace. It was found that professional preferences have different influences on doctors’ choices, depending on their place of residence measured in terms of a location’s population density. The paper concludes that opportunities in employment depend on one’s stage in life and can serve to explain choices and mobility among highly skilled public employees.