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Regular version of the site

Laboratory seminar. Leena Enbom, "What did casual labourers do? Transformation of the unskilled job market in Helsinki, 1890-1980"

On 3 April 2019 at 5 p.m. Leena Enbom, a doctoral candidate of the University of Helsinki gave a talk "What did casual labourers do? Transformation of the unskilled job market in Helsinki, 1890-1980" at the seminar of the Laboratory for Environmental and Technological History.

Laboratory seminar. Leena Enbom, "What did casual labourers do? Transformation of the unskilled job market in Helsinki, 1890-1980"

On 3 April 2019 at 5 p.m. Leena Enbom, a doctoral candidate of the University of Helsinki gave a talk "What did casual labourers do? Transformation of the unskilled job market in Helsinki, 1890-1980" at the seminar of the Laboratory for Environmental and Technological History.

  • Annotation:
    Late 19th and early 20th century Helsinki was a young and rapidly growing city whose labour market largely pulled in migrants from the countryside. Most of the new urbanitesmade their living in the city as casual labourers. In 1910, approximately 20% of the economically active population of Helsinki were the so-called general workers. During the following decades, the size of the unskilled job market shrank as the industrial structure of the city underwent a remarkable transformation. General labour jobs did not, however, disappear from the urban economy. Instead, in the post-Second World War Helsinkigeneral workers were most often found as auxiliary workforce within the well-established branches.
    This paper discusses the long-term changes on the labour market sector that is most often named ‘unskilled’. Firstly, I will examine how unspecified labour appears (or absentees) in different population statistics. Basing on these numbers, I will present an estimation of the scale of the unskilled job market in Helsinki at different times. The statistical data on the industrial structure of Helsinki is contrasted with that of some selected cities in the Baltic region. One of the aims of this study is to estimate whether Helsinki was – during a certain period – a stronghold of general labour in the light of national and international comparisons.
    In addition tothestatistical overview, I will rely on the qualitative data – notably the case files of general worker householdswho were in the receipt of municipal poor relief in Helsinki within the period in question (1890-1980). By so doing, I will be able to demonstrate what type of jobs general workers undertookat different times. Altogether, I aim to establish a definition ofgeneral labour and the unskilled job market that is sensitive to the societal and technological change shaping the urban economy.My analysis includes discussion on the factors that have historically maintained a relatively large sector of unskilled and casual labour force in industrializing and modernizing cities.

Date: 3rd of April, 2019

Location: HSE, Griboedova Canal, 123

Room: 213

Time: 17:00