ABSTRACT
The welfare states are, among other things, important employers of labor power. This chapter analyses the relationship between the welfare state and the labor market from that angle. Public employment has increased considerably in many, if not most, modern Western nations after World War II, and it has become a significant aspect of their present-day social and economic structure. The most important issue concerning the definition of public employment is how to classify employees in public enterprises. The share of public employees as percentage of total employment has risen in many Western nations during the post-World War period. In both the 1970s and the 1980s, total employment increased in all four Scandinavian countries. Growth rates were highest in Norway. Growth rates for public employment were generally higher in the 1970s than in the 1980s, although the difference for Norway is not very large. Denmark had the largest expansion in the 1970s, but it slowed down considerably in following decade.
