ABSTRACT
The advance of technology in post-war Sweden has taken place in a labour market characterized by a manpower scarcity of hitherto unknown severity. It is primarily when the productivity gains attached to labour mobility are in line with the total 'costs' of the individual and society that the movement of manpower is justified from the welfare economics viewpoint. This chapter describes the magnitude and composition of gross labour turnover which can be useful to illustrate in greater detail the scope of the problems. In Sweden the available statistical data on labour turnover consist of an unbroken series since 1947 of the number and percentages of weekly job separations and new employee accessions. Though the data available have many shortcomings, they do indicate that the favourable overall figures for employment and unemployment tend to disguise significant problems of adaptation for workers made redundant by plant shutdowns.
