than the remaining West European countries together.
These purchases of goods from low-cost countries were
made by the big wholesalers and chain stores direct
or through agents, and naturally had a tremendous
impact on the Swedish spinning and weaving industries
in the first instance, but, as expected, this impact
was not reflected immediately in the employment
figures.
Changes in the Textile Industry
It has been mentioned already that the proces$
of rationalisation inevitably led to the closing down
of some of the more unprofitable manufacturing units,
not necessarily the smaller ones.
The combined effect
of this continuing process and foreign competition
grew in intensity and was easily discernible in the
employment figures for 1962 and onwards.
The real'
effect is difficult to define, however, because of
considerable deviations in the official Swedish
statistics, and it would be unwise to take recourse
to them here (c.f. Swedish Statistical Abstract for
1965 p.115 and Manufacturing Statistics for 1965
p.375, both published by the Central Bureau of
Statistics). It is safe to say, however,
that with
the exception of 1964, when there was actually a
slight increase in the total number of people engaged
in the Swedish textile industry, employment figures
are following a gentle downward trend, and further,
that with the exception of only two branches of the
jute processing and hat making
industry
there has
been a parallel and steady increase in the number of
white-collar workers in the textile industry.