The development of working hours among wage earners
Preface
In connection with the combined settlement signed by the labour market organisations in August 1988, an agreement was reached on research into working time arrangements and needs, for the implementation of which the Research Institute of the Finnish Economy and the Labour Economic Research Institute were approached in 1989–90. In the first year of the research project funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund at the Labour Economic Research Institute, a preliminary study was conducted focusing on two matters: examining, using existing statistical and research data, the development patterns of working hours and the working time preferences of wage earners in Finland, and reviewing the effects of various methods of reducing and arranging working hours. Another central aim of the preliminary study was also to map the conditions created by the available statistical data for the empirical individual studies in the second year of the research project, the purpose of which is to produce new and in-depth research knowledge on various working time arrangements.
This report is the first part of the preliminary study conducted at the Labour Economic Research Institute in 1989. The report describes the development patterns of wage earners’ working hours in the 1970s and 1980s. First, it examines how total work input measured in hours has varied during the 1970s and 1980s and what factors have been the key causes of this variation. Second, it examines the length of wage earners’ working careers in the labour market and the changes that have taken place in this, as well as the factors influencing these changes. Third, it examines changes in annual working hours, and fourth, it examines the prevalence of different working time arrangements and the changes that have occurred in their use. Fifth, it examines wage earners’ attitudes towards work and their working time preferences. The report concludes with a brief presentation of the research questions for the empirical studies to be conducted in the second year of the research project. (AI translation)
- ISSN: 0358-5980
- ISBN: 951-9282-24-6
