Work life complexity no longer on the rise: trends among 1930s–1980s birth cohorts in Sweden

There is a conception that contemporary work lives become ever more complex. Pioneering research has indicated have indeed complex, yet at modestly increasing pace. This paper uses Swedish registry data across an exceptionally long time period, including cohorts born from 1931 to 1983. The following conclusions are drawn using state-of-the-art methods of measuring sequence complexity. For early-careers, complexity trend evident between the 1950s and 1960s birth cohorts, fluctuates around stable for 1970s onward. mid-careers, which considerably on average, decreased among women 1930s early-1950s. However, opposite holds true men, resulting in gender convergence We observe subsequent standstill mid-career both genders, followed by modest decline last observed cohorts. Analyses point educational expansion as important driver initial increase early-career Taken together, this study affirms shift life twentieth century, we find no unidirectional toward over decades.