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same, at least through the 1970's, because of continued immigration and growth of female employment.

Since 1940 there has been a marked increase in the proportion of the labor force moving from agriculture to other occupations. Figure 10 shows the changes in the distribution of the force that have taken place since 1940 among the various sectors of the economy. There has also been a significant shift in the number of women in the labor force; in 1950 working women numbered 819,000, or 26.4%, of the total, compared with 966,000, or 29.8%, in 1960 and 1.1 million, or 33.9%, in 1965. Between 1950 and 1965 the number of married women in the labor force more than doubled, whereas the absolute number of male and other female workers declined. There has also been a marked relative increase in the number of married women seeking employment; this group made up 17.0% of the labor force in 1965, compared with 13.1% in 1980 and 7.6% in 1950.

The following tabulation shows the percent of women aged 16 to 74 in the labor force in selected years:

Figure 11 shows the age-sex distribution of the labor force in 1965 and 1950, as established by the respective censuses.

The number of aliens in the labor force has exceeded 100,000 almost every year since 1950. In 1970 there were 209,289 foreign workers in Sweden, or about 5.5% of the nation's labor force. Roughly 60% of the total number of foreign workers come from the Nordic countries, which constitute a common labor market. Thus, a citizen of one of these countries can hold employment and take up residence in any one of the other Nordic countries without any employment or residence visa. Furthermore, he can cross the borders without holding a passport, belong to the unemployment benefit society of his profession, and receive government assistance, even retaining, should he become unemployed. Finns make up the largest number of foreign workers in Sweden, numbering about 110,000 in 1972. There has been a considerable increase in Yugoslavs in the last 4 years. There are a substantial number of other north Europeans, and east and south Europeans as well, as may be seen in the following tabulation:

2. Employment and unemployment

Full employment has been one of the principal objectives of national policy since the mid-1930's. The capacity of organized labor and management for effective cooperation was enhanced by the general prosperity of the period—one of consistently rapid industrial growth. Furthermore, the very slow rate of natural population increase was inadequate to meet the manpower needs, and foreign labor had to be imported, particularly after 1960. Sweden maintained almost full employment throughout the sixties, and its

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090021-3