uction. One foreign observer remarked that, whenever something went
wrong in the economy, reorganization in one form or another was
undertaken in an effort to solve the problem through administrative
means.

LABOR

The average number of persons employed in industry in 1969 was
1,980,000, or about 40 percent of total employment excluding those
employed on collective farms. Industrial employment had increased by
725,000 persons in the 1960-69 period. Employment in construction grew
more rapidly--from 372,000 persons in 1960 to almost 648,000 in 1969. At
the end of 1969 women constituted 43 percent of employment in industry
and less than 9 percent in construction. In industry, the proportion of
women in blue-collar and white-collar jobs was about equal. In
construction, however, women occupied one-third of the white-collar
positions and only 5 percent of the blue-collar jobs.

A distribution of employment by industry branches is available only for
enterprises under the direct jurisdiction of the central government. Of
these, machine building and metalworking absorbed 27 percent of the
employed; fuels and metallurgy, 15 percent; forestry and woodworking,
15 percent; textile production, 12 percent; and chemicals and food
processing, 7 percent each. Several less important industry branches
accounted for another 11 percent of industrial employment, and an
unlisted residue of fifty enterprises employing almost 100,000 persons,
presumably constituting the defense industry, made up the balance of 6
percent.

The growth of employment in the 1960-69 period varied widely among the
different industry branches. Whereas the number of employed rose by 60
percent for centrally administered industry as a whole, it increased by
almost 2.4 times in the chemical branch, somewhat more than doubled in
the production of cellulose and paper, and grew by 80 percent in
nonferrous metallurgy and in machine building and metalworking. The
lowest increases in employment occurred in the production of fuels, in
ferrous metallurgy, and in the manufacture of glass and china. The
increases in employment did not necessarily correspond to the priority
ratings of the individual branches; high priority branches received
relatively much larger investment.

The labor force is numerically redundant but qualitatively inadequate
for the needs of modern industry. Despite the existence of labor
training programs, there is a shortage of skilled personnel at th