Family households and unemployment in norway during years of crisis

Abstract

Interwar Norway saw a depressed labor market with mass unemployment both in the 1920s and 1930s. To protect family household income, breadwinners were preferred in the labor market. In consequence, discriminatory measures were carried out against married women and the younger part of the labor force with minor family support responsibilities. The article offers new estimates of employment, unemployment, family support responsibilities, labor participation rates, and hidden unemployment based on census data and files from the Norwegian National Archive. The major conclusion drawn is that the discriminatory policy made unemployment higher in the young non-breadwinning part of the labor force than among breadwinners, while married women to a large extent withdrew from the labor market and went into hidden unemployment.

Acknowledgements

The authors of the article would like to thank Professor Timothy J. Hatton, Professor Fritz Hodne, Anne-Lise Head König, Elisabeth Lønnå, and Jarmo Peltola for valuable comments and help with this article.

Notes

1 According to special outprint of the Central Bureau of Statistics of Norway's monthly consumer price index.

2 The Norwegian National Archive, Arbeidsinspektoratet (Directorate of Labor), Situasjonsrapporter 1916–1939, boxes 98–100.

3 In addition to the annual reports from the Directorate of Labor, our sources have been traced at the Norwegian National Archive: the Norwegian National Archive, Arbeidsinspektoratet (Directorate of Labor), Kommunale arbeidsløshetsmeldinger 1916–1939, boxes 101–160; Statens Inspektorat for Arbeidsformidlingen og Arbeidsforsikringen (Norwegian Directorate of Labor), Årsberetning 1920–21 (Annual Report 1920–21), Kristiania 1922, pp. 33–34; and Statens Inspektorat for Arbeidsformidlingen og Arbeidsforsikringen (Norwegian Directorate of Labor), Årsberetning 1921–22 (Annual Report 1921–22), Kristiania 1923, Table IIIc, p. 84.

4 Data are compiled from Statens Inspektorat for Arbeidsformidling og Arbeidsledighetsforsikring (Directorate of Labor), Årsberetning 1926–1941 (Annual Reports 1926–1941), Oslo 1927–1942, tables on registrations of unemployed job-seekers at the public labor exchanges by gender and age.

5 These data are traced at: the Norwegian National Archive, Arbeidsinspektoratet (Directorate of Labor), Situasjonsrapporter 1916–1939, boxes 98–100.

6 However, it should be noted that due to the very strict definition of breadwinners, this rate is indeed high, but nevertheless relevant in the context.