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MongoliaLabor Force
Composition
In 1921 nomadic herders and monks dominated Mongolia's work
force. Foreigners--Russians and Chinese--comprised the vast
majority of the work force for all other occupations, namely
agriculture, trade, handicrafts, and services. Mongolia faced the
task of transforming the labor force into one capable of filling
the variety of occupations required by a modern socialist
economy. At first, the new government encountered numerous
problems in building its work force, including illiteracy, the
lack of qualified personnel, labor shortages, and attitudes
inconsistent with systematized work and regular hours. As a
result of these problems and the economy's initially slow
development, the labor force remained primarily agrarian until
the mid-1960s.
The composition of Mongolia's labor force changed slowly in
the 1920s and the 1930s. In 1924 party leader Horloyn Choybalsan
remarked that Mongolia had no more than 150 industrial workers.
By 1932 the country had 2,335 "workers and employees" (employees
were defined as nonproduction state employees, such as
administrators and professionals), of which 302 were industrial
workers. By 1936 industrial workers had increased to 2,400, and
they had surpassed 10,000 in 1939. There were 33,100 workers and
employees in 1940; nevertheless, 90 percent of the work force was
engaged in agrarian pursuits--primarily, in herding. The
distribution of the worker and employee work force in 1940 was
41.4 percent in industry, 29.3 percent in nonproduction
occupations, 3.0 percent in agriculture, 4.2 percent in trade and
communications, and 2.2 percent in trade. Large-scale
transformation of the work force accompanied the major effort to
industrialize and to collectivize agriculture after World War II.
By 1960 agricultural and forestry workers represented 60.8
percent of the labor force; industrial and nonagricultural
material production workers, 26.2 percent; and employees engaged
in nonmaterial production labor, 13 percent. In 1985 agricultural
and forestry workers dropped to 33.8 percent of the work force,
while industrial and nonagricultural production workers rose to
39.8 percent, and nonproduction workers, to 26.2 percent.
Furthermore, large numbers of women entered all sectors of
the economy as it developed. Women and children traditionally
took part in herding activities; as the economy expanded, so did
women's participation. Between 1960 and 1985, women's
representation in the "worker and employee" work force rose from
30.8 percent to 51.3 percent. According to the 1979 census, women
comprised 45.6 percent of the work force. Sixty-nine percent of
all employed women, or 42.5 percent of the work force, were
engaged in material production. Thirty-one percent of all
employed women were engaged in nonmaterial production; these
women comprised 54.6 percent of all workers in nonmaterial
production (see
table 5, Appendix).
Foreign labor played a major role in the development of
Mongolia's economy. Because of labor shortages, Chinese and
Soviet workers initially constituted a large proportion of the
industrial and construction force. In 1927 about 26 percent of
industrial workers were Mongolian, and in 1934 about 50 percent
were foreign. In 1940 Mongolians made up 87.7 percent of all
workers and employees; 6.6 percent were Chinese; and 5.7 percent
were Soviets. In the 1950s, China sent approximately 10,000
laborers to Mongolia to engage in such construction projects as
road and bridge building. In 1961 the number of Chinese workers
peaked at 13,150; then, it declined, in the wake of the SinoSoviet split. Soviet citizens had a major role in the Mongolian
economy as advisers and employees of joint Mongolian-Soviet
enterprises, particularly after 1960. Smaller numbers of East
European experts also came to Mongolia after its 1962 entry into
Comecon. At the beginning of the 1980s, about 32,000 Soviets and
15,000 East Europeans were working in Mongolia.
Data as of June 1989
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