WAGE STABILITY AND EMPLOYMENT
| Published date | 01 June 1958 |
| Author | J.R. PARKINSON |
| Date | 01 June 1958 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1958.tb00355.x |
WAGE STABILITY AND EMPLOYMENT
SOME
FACTS
THE
rise in wages in the postwar period which has caused
so
much
concern
in
the U.K. has been widely spread. Most countries
in
West-
em Europe, the United
States
and Canada, as well as other industrial
countries, have been affected. The extent of the increase has varied.
but over the period
1950-56,
U.K. experience has been typical, rather
than different from that
of
other countries. This is evident in Table
I.
TABLE
I
INCREASE IN HOURLY EARNINGS IN MANUFACTURING
INDUSTRY AND UNEMPLOYMENT,
1950-56"
France
.
.
.
Austria
.
.
.
Sweden
. . .
Norway
.
. .
U.K.
.
,
.
.
Germany
. .
.
Canada
9.
Netherlandsd
.
.
Ireland
.
.
.
Italy
. .
.
.
U.S.
. . .
.
Switzerland
.
.
.
Increase
in
hourly
earninm
or
rates,
1950-56
190
182
172
159
155
154
147
145
I43
I39
135
118
Percentage iinernploved
1956
Small
6
3
14
1)
4
3
1
8
Large
4
Small
"The figures given in the table are based on the OEEC
Genera!
Sraristical Bulletin.
but since they are compiled from national statistical
sources their content differs rather considerably.
For
further details on
this point see
Definitions and Methods,
an OEEC explanatory publication.
Hourly earnings in
four
branches
of
industry. Hourly wage rates
increased by the smaller amount
of
35
per
cent. over the period. No
unemployment percentages are published
for
the Netherlands
;
the figure
given is intended to indicate the likely order
of
magnitude.
Over the period considered, U.K. and German hourly earnings
have increased at almost exactly the same rate, and this was still true
between
1955
and
1956,
when hourly earnings in both countries in-
creased by roughly
9
per cent., while the increase recorded for Germany
between
1956
and August
1957
of
11
per cent. compares with only
6
per cent. for the U.K.
In
France and Austria, which have been
particularly susceptible to inflationary tendencies,
the
rate of increase
has been greater, as it has in Sweden, but
in
Canada, the Netherlands
85
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