Swedish Employment in the 1950s - Filling the Lacuna

There are no published data on the number of employed persons in Sweden between 1950 and 1960. The lacuna prevents linking modern employment series to the historical time series 1870-1950. Thereby long-term studies of Swedish economic development are seriously impaired. This paper evaluates and corrects unpublished extrapolations based on estimates of hours worked. By comparing these with data on active income earners from the taxation statistics and contemporary sources on employment flows the quality is assessed. A major shift in the definition of income earners in the taxation statistics 1950-1951 has been bridged. On this basis data on employees and self-employed can be reconstructed for major industry divisions. Industry links are suggested to the National Accounts 1960 using re-compilations of the 1950 and 1960 Censuses as benchmarks for consistent industry definitions. Our work shows that employment increased in the 1950s with close to even numbers in the private and public sectors, contrary to the strong concentration of employment growth to the public sectors that the census data 1950 and 1960 indicate.