Production factors – Finland of employees, 100 years

During its 100 years of independence, Finland has transformed from a poor, agrarian economy into a service-based and internationalised country through industrialisation, in which six out of seven employed persons are wage earners. From the perspective of wage earners and their organisations, this period can be divided into three phases.

In the interwar period, the balance of power lay between governments and firms, and employers sought to determine working conditions unilaterally. After the Second World War and up to the early 1990s, Finland’s growth model was state-led, while trade unions gained increasing influence in labour markets and in the construction of the welfare state. The most recent decades have been characterised, among other things, by the commitment of labour market organisations to the low-inflation objective of monetary union and by the erosion of the welfare state.

It is still unclear whether Finland is now transitioning into a new era marked by the end of incomes policy and a new configuration of societal power relations. (AI translation)

• ISBN: 978-952-209-169-7
• Press Release in Finnish
• Publication in PDF-format