Age, sex and marital status

regarded as permanent. A consequence of this decision was that the management could not deal with shortage of work in the early 1920s by releasing temporary workers. This is an important fact to have in mind when assessing the downsizing process of the Tobacco Monopoly. Temporary workers did not totally disappear in the following years but were very few. In 1929 the factory again started to hire temporary workers in significant numbers. The main part of this non-permanent workforce, which exclusively consisted of women,¹⁹ was released in 1932.

In the literature, temporary workers are often characterized as unskilled aspirants without previous experience. This was not the case in the Swedish tobacco industry of the inter-war period. When it came to occupational status, quite a few temporary workers were employed in relatively skilled positions.²⁰ Most of the temporary workers hired by Malmö Cigar Factory in 1916 and 1917 had previously been employed in the industry.²¹ The workers hired in 1929 and 1930 also had previous experience; some had been laid off due to shortage of work in the personnel reductions earlier in the decade and some were re-hired after formal retirement.²² The creation of the personnel reserve can thus be seen as a formalization of an existing practice.

Figure 8.6 Average age for male and female workers at cigar factories, 1920-1939

20 25 30 35 40 45 50

1920 1923 1926 1929 1932 1935 1938

Men Women

Source: Annual reports of the Tobacco Monopoly 1920-1939.

The mean age is a good starting point for studying the development of the age structure during the contraction phase in the 1920s. Assuming that personnel turnover was low and that the inflow of junior workers ceased or decreased substantially, the mean age in a downsizing firm could be expected to rise over time. This is also what can be observed in figure 8.6, which displays the mean age of men and women in cigar production from 1920 to 1939. From levels of 38 and 28, the average ages of both male and female workers increased by about ten years until the mid-1930s, when the downsizing was halted.

The means displayed in figure 8.6 have been calculated from figures reported in the company’s annual reports, which contain detailed information on the age structure of men and women at various factories and branches. It is possible to take the investigation further by studying the relative size of different age groups at certain points in time. Figure 8.7 illustrates the situation before and after the dramatic personnel reductions in 1921.

The relative youth of the workforce before the cuts is evident; about 64 percent of the cigar and cigar-cigarette workers were under 30 and less than 8 percent of the workers were over 50. One year later, after two rounds of mass-layoffs, the share of workers under 30 decreased to 54 percent and the share of workers close to retirement (over 50) to less than 5 percent. From figure 8.7 it is apparent that the personnel reductions affected the youngest and the oldest groups most. This is in accordance with Lazear’s reasoning outlined in section

Figure 8.7 Age composition of the workforce at the cigar factories before and after the personnel reductions in 1921 (in percent)

At the end of 1920

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

14-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59

60-At the end of 1921

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

14-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59

60-Source: Annual reports of the Tobacco Monopoly 1920-1921.

2.3. The share of workers between 14 and 19 decreased by three fourths and the group of workers over 60 was virtually eliminated; out of 100 at the end of 1920, only four remained at the end of 1921. This was the result of the two pension schemes launched in autumn the same year.²³

23 Note that these pensions were formally granted in 1922 but that the affected workers were not counted as employed at the end of 1921.

Figure 8.8 Age composition of the workforce at the cigar factories in 1930 and 1939 (in percent)

At the end of 1930

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

14-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59

60-At the end of 1939

0 5 10 15 20 25 30

14-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59

60-Source: Annual reports of the Tobacco Monopoly 1930 and 1939.

The next cross-section is taken at the end of 1930, after about ten years of downsizing (figure 8.8). At this point in time the age structure had a clock shape, with most workers found in the ages between 30 and 49. An interesting observation is that about 15 percent of the workforce had not yet turned 25, which indicates a certain inflow of manpower in spite of the contraction in total terms. The rejuvenation becomes even clearer when looking at the age structure at the end of 1939 when over 30 percent of the workers were under 25.

Figure 8.9 Share female workers (in percent) at cigar factories, 1920-1939

50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100

1920 1923 1926 1929 1932 1935 1938

Source: Annual reports of the Tobacco Monopoly 1920-1939.

It has now been established that the age composition of the Tobacco Monopoly’s workers changed considerably over time. On average, the workforce got older, although the inflow of young workers was not totally stopped. But it was also shown that the gap in mean age between men and women remained fairly constant throughout the period.

The gender composition of the workforce at cigar factories did not change much either, as shown in figure 8.9. The share of female workers was virtually constant around 87 percent. It is clear that the feminization of this branch had already been concluded before mechanization and that the development was not reversed because of the personnel reductions. When interpreting figure 8.9 it is, however, important to keep in mind the negative development of cigar sales relative to cigar-cigarettes. Since men were overrepresented in cigar production, the share of female workers could be expected to have increased during the post-war crisis. The absence of such an increase may indicate that men enjoyed a higher degree of employment protection. Pursuing the analysis further, it would be interesting to look at how the gender composition of the workforce in various occupations changed over time, particularly the gender composition of the workers in cigar production. Unfortunately, such an investigation is not possible to provide since the Tobacco Monopoly did not collect information on workers’

job titles from 1921 onwards.²⁴

24 This issue is further commented upon in section 11.3 and A2.5.

Figure 8.10 Marriage rate (in percent) for workers over 21, all branches

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

1919 1922 1925 1928 1931 1934 1937

Men 1 Men 2 Women 1 Women 2

Note: Marriage rate is here defined as the number of married individuals per hundred workers at the end of each year. Widows, widowers and divorced were counted as married in the statistics published in the annual reports of the Tobacco Monopoly until 1934. These series are displayed in the figure as ‘Men 1’ and ‘Women 1’. The categorization was changed in 1935 so that widows, widowers and divorced were counted as unmarried. In that year figures according to the new principles were also provided for the years 1931 to 1934. These series are denoted ‘Men 2’ and ‘Women 2’ in the figure.

Source: Annual reports of the Tobacco Monopoly 1919-1939.

Another demographic variable of interest is civil status. Information of the marriage rate for male and female workers was included in the annual reports from 1920 onwards.²⁵ As widows, widowers and divorced until the 1934 report were counted as married – the stated marriage rate was consequently the share ever married. Thereafter the classification was changed so that widows, widowers and divorced were counted as unmarried. Since the 1935 report included information on the marriage rate according to both principles for some years back in time, it is possible to get an idea about the difference between the share ever married and the share presently married. As shown in figure 8.10, the reclassification in 1935 did not matter much for men but made a difference for women. The fact that widows and divorced were counted as married implies that the level of presently married women was overrated until 1934. Still, the

25 Observe that the marriage rate here refers to the situation at a certain point in time, not to the share of unmarried men and women who get married during a given period.

development of this indicator is worth considering in relation to the downsizing process.

During the 1920s, the share of the workers married tended to increase, particularly for women. All else equal, this indicates that the male-breadwinner norm was not allowed to influence the workforce reductions to any significant extent. But there are certainly other factors of potential importance that have to be taken into account before any conclusions can be drawn in this matter. One such factor is the age composition of the workforce. As the mean age of the workforce increased, it is not surprising that the share of ever married increased.²⁶ It is possible that this age effect obscures influences of the male-breadwinner norm.

This issue can be further investigated by using the data from the personnel records of Malmö Cigar Factory. Figure 8.11 shows age-specific marriage rates for female workers at Malmö Cigar Factory. The presentation is delimited to female workers in the age groups 31 to 40 and 41 to 50, which accounted for the bulk of the workforce at the factory.²⁷ The development of the marriage rate in these groups looks somewhat different, but shares two characteristics: (1) there is no long-term tendency for the marriage rate to increase and (2), the marriage rate drops clearly in 1927.

So, when controlling for changes in the age composition, there was no general tendency for the share of married women to increase during the downsizing process. Further investigation is required to determine whether married women were crowded out from the Tobacco Monopoly. There may have been discrimination against married women when establishing the order of selection at layoffs, or an increased propensity of married women to quit. Both mechanisms can be viewed as expressions of the male-breadwinner norm. If the management shared the conviction that jobs should be preserved for married men, or felt obliged to adhere to such a practice, it would have targeted married women when implementing layoffs or making buyout offers. This was obviously the case in 1927, as shown in chapter 6. Married female workers may also have been persuaded to quit by their unmarried colleagues. The quit rate among married and unmarried women would be interesting to analyze, but this issue has to be left for future research.

26 It should, however, be noted that the marriage rate is calculated as a share of workers over 21.

27 This delimitation is made in order to get sufficient numbers of workers in the groups throughout the period of investigation. The numbers of male workers in all age groups were small, as were the numbers of female workers under 31 and over 50.

Figure 8.11 Age-specific marriage rates (in percent) for female workers at Malmö Cigar Factory, 1915-1939

Female workers 31-40

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

1915 1918 1921 1924 1927 1930 1933 1936 1939

Female workers 41-50

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

1915 1918 1921 1924 1927 1930 1933 1936 1939

Note: Marriage rate is here defined as the number of married individuals per 100 workers at the given points in time.

Source: MS, FHK, Matriklar över slutade arbetare, D4A: 1-8.