Employment and unemployment among day-labourers on family farms in central Sweden c. 1860 to 1910

The share of the land-poor rural population in Sweden was around fifty percent in 1860. Their way of providing for themselves has been hard to assess due to lack of sources. This study sets out to follow day-labourers on family farms, the dominant employers of day-labourers in Swedish agriculture, 1860–1910. By studying journals kept by family farmers on seven farms in mid-Sweden, we can calculate how important day-labour was for the labourers, unique in an international context. From this we estimate the income loss for day-labouring families in years of low demand and discuss potential ways for them to mitigate this. The results show that day-labouring was a minor part of the overall provision. However, large variations in labour demand and therefore fluctuations in income for an already vulnerable group could still have affected their livlihoods. In the 1860s, mitigation rested on loans and relief from the farmers and potentially on an intensification of own production, e.g. in textiles. Thirty years later, some day-labouring families had been able to save parts of their income. There had also arisen an opportunity to buy land which, together with a more advanced credit system, could be used to mitigate years of unemployment.