3 65.8% and 54.7%.3 The; female LFP is also relatively high; at present it is greater than that of the other European countries.

In addition to sustaining this high level the LFP continued to grow during the 1980s. This was not due to an increase in the WAP as indicated by the relative constant ratio of the WAP to the total population (Table 2A, Appendix), but rather to an increase in secondary labor force participation (i.e., women, youth, and workers eligible for retirement). This observation is consistent with the higb, and yet increasing, female participation rate, the drop in the rate of school attendance, and the increasing number of retired people actually holding jobs (Table 1A, Appendix).

Official figures indicate small rates of growth in aggregate employment at 0.6 percent p.a. during 1970-90, and a small drop in 1989-90 (Table IA, Appendix). Corrected employment figures (Table 2A, Appendix) indicate that employment grew at even lower rates (0.5 percent p.a. in 1981-88), and even declined by 1.4 percent during 1988-90. During the period 1970-88, the real growth of the net material output reached about 2 percent p.a., further declining to 0.7 percent and -3.5 percent respectively in 1989 and 1990. This suggests a relatively small aggregate employment-output elasticity, which reached a value of only 0.25 in 1981-1988S.

The composition of civilian employment across industrial sectors (Table 5A, Appendix) was fundamentally static from 1981-19896. Tbe only important change during this period was the chronic decline in employment in the agricultural sector at a rate of about 0.7 percent p.a.; this period was concurrent with growth of agricultural output at 1.9 percent p.a.. In contrast, during that same period, employment in the total non-material sphere grew at 0.9 percent p.a. while in the service sector it grew 13 percent p.a. between 1981 and 1988. While employment grew at 0.7 and 0.4 percent p.a. respectively in the industrial<sup>7</sup> and construction sectors, the employment-output elasticity of the former indicated by official figures is as low as 0.1, while it reaches 0.4 in the latter case. During the 1980s, employment dropped in the aggregate tradeables sector; employment growth was concentrated in non-tradeable activities, particularly those more directly linked with the central Government (Table 1).

**3** Data taken from the ILO Yearbook, 1987. The years for the countries mentioned are respectively 1986, 1985, 1986 and 1981.

**4** Official employment estimates (Table 1), exdude women on maternity leave, trainees, **armed** forces and other groups considered working in high security fields, such as workers in uranium mining and those employed by the Communist Party. These estimates did not correct for those persons holding two or more part-time jobs.

**S** Econometric estimates, which have accounted for the role of both wages and output in explaining observed employment changes, indicate a similar, small, long run employment-output elasticity of 027. Similar phenomenon is observed in other former socialist countries. (See Riveros, 1990).

**6** The civilian employment figures exclude military personnel.

**7** The definition of industry used here is broad, in order to match statistics )n net material product; thus, it includes **mining,** manufacturing and utilities.