The labor market in gerontological nursing in Brazil.

Objective: to analyze the development of the labor market in Gerontological Nursing in Brazil, between 1970 and 1996.

Method: a descriptive-qualitative study with a historical approach that uses the oral history of 14 research nurses working in the historical period, based on the ideas of Eliot Freidson.

Results: Nursing overcame barriers to change the care practices to elderly people in the period described, considering the lack of a specific labor market; the need for theoretical knowledge for Gerontology care; the scarcity of research and researchers in the field; the emergence of caregivers for elderly people; the construction of multidisciplinarity and the transformation of institutions for a long-term stay.

Final Considerations: the expansion of the labor market at the time was grounded on advances on the production of knowledge of the aging process, supported by the demographic transition, that determined the increase in the demand by elderly people for health services and the enactment of specific laws protecting this population.