Tobias Karlsson

This chapter deals with labour mobility and labour market segmentation in Gothenburg in 1915–1943. For this purpose, the Gothenburg Population Panel offers unique research opportunities as it includes information about employers, as well as occupation and source of income. Thus, it is possible to capture labour mobility in a wide sense, not only distinguishing between changes of employer and occupational group, but also between employment and self-employment, and leaving gainful employment. Over time, most mobility can be observed in the beginning of our period of investigation. For both men and women, most mobility took place in early phases of the life cycle. Employer-to-employer mobility was more common than changes of occupation. Employer-to-employer mobility was mainly a phenomenon outside big business, suggesting the existence of a dual labour market. By class, people with intermediate or low social status were more likely to experience various forms of labour mobility than people with high-status occupations. Overall, most patterns found in this chapter are reasonable in the light of theory and previous research. Using poll tax records seems to a fruitful approach to study labour mobility in a mature industrial city.