LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Ekonominės galimybės; Darbo rinkos segmentacija; Užimtumas; Economic opportunities; Labour market segmentation; Employment; Lithuania.
ENEconomic independence is a compulsory condition in order to make it possible for residents to control their life, to make the certain decisions and implement them. Rapid globalization processes and changing economic conditions provide Lithuanian residents not only with new opportunities, but also with a number of negative challenges. This leads to the need to analyze and evaluate the distribution of economic opportunities of residents. The paper aims to evaluate the distribution of economic opportunities among Lithuanian population by counties based on the integrated indicator. The following tasks were set in order to reach the aim of the research: 1. To explore influencing factors to economic opportunities of residents. 2. Grounding on the completed integrated indicator to assess economic opportunities of residents in Lithuania by counties. Study results suggest that economic opportunities of residents depend on education, gender, employment opportunities, wage differentiation, etc. Occupancy is a very important factor, which ensures economic independence of individuals. Statistical data analysis shows that the differentiation of economic opportunities of residents is formed on the regional level: in different counties, cities and villages, rural residents have uneven opportunities. The calculated integrated indicator has shown that the best situation belongs to Vilnius County (1st place) and the worst situation considering the integrated indicator belongs to Marijampolė County (10th place). The value of the integrated indicator of Marijampolė County is even 88.6% lower as compared to the corresponding indicator of Vilnius County. [From the publication]