The contribution of the geothermal resources to local employment: Case study from Poland

Next to heat and energy production, geothermal energy presents with opportunities for rural and suburban areas linking sustainable development goals with expansion of new local economy sectors. We conduct the shift share analysis for the ten municipality cases of the geothermal exploitation in Poland, comparing their employment structure with their reference poviat as a control group, in the years 2005 and 2018. The results reveal a strong shift in the trade and service sectors employment in all of examined geothermal localities, outperforming the reference poviats. In the tested period, more jobs were generated in the geothermal municipalities than in poviats too. Moreover, the structure of the differential shift component indicates that the trade and services employment growth is related with the development of the geothermal spas and recreational centers in the examined municipalities. The hypothesis that the geothermal resources utilization increases the employment in the local services sectors is corroborated.