ABSTRACT
In most OECD countries the demand for workers and their skills has undergone large changes over the last few decades. Researchers explain these changes primarily in terms of growing international trade and globalization, technological change, changes in work organization and higher unemployment (Wadensjö 1998). In Sweden, industrial, occupational and skill structures have changed substantially during the last decades. Manufacturing, mining and agricultural sectors have contracted, while the public and private service sectors have expanded. Production processes in Sweden have also changed over the last decades and now require more highly skilled blue and white collar workers than 30 years ago. The share of skilled labor has increased steadily during this period. Research indicates that change in the relative supply of skilled labor was the main driving force behind the growing skill share between 1970 and 1985, while an acceleration in the relative demand for skills was the main driving force behind the growing skill share in the late 1980s and 1990s (Hansson 1997 and 2000; Lindquist 2005).
