Following World War 2, the times were very rough. All of the involved countries had a short period where the national reserves were very emptied out due to the extremely taxing war on which a lot of money was spent. However, after this war, there was a period of around thirty years where everything had to be rebuilt wich also meant a period of great economic prosperity and a lot of jobs. So in essence, the economic situation was a complex one and it also depended a lot on the country itself.