Employment and Wage Policies 1966–75

Abstract

The period as a whole can be characterised as a period of reforms and as the most successful in terms of improvements in the standard of living. All three countries — above all Czechoslovakia — tried to learn a lesson from the shocking experience of the early 60s. In addition balance-of-trade difficulties as well as gradual exhaustion of labour reserves forced governments to embark on reforms of the management system. It was also a period when labour shortages started to show up on a larger scale than before — primarily in Czechoslovakia — and became of great concern to the central planners.