A Study of Post-War Industrial Fluctuations in Denmark

Abstract

In 1944 Denmark’s total labour force, including self-employed and wage earners of every description, could be estimated at some 1,800,000, of whom about 1,280,000 were wage and salary earners. It had been calculated that the employment of approximately 170,000 wage earners, comprising some 13 per cent of all wage earners or about 30 per cent of all insured workers, was directly and indirectly dependent upon the Occupying Power. This number of workers could be expected to be released immediately upon the cessation of hostilities, and it was evident that to the extent to which they would not be absorbed within a rather short time, their reduced expenditure would induce a spiral of further unemployment. The table shows what actually happened.