17-03-2025
What are the most future-proof jobs in Sweden for graduates?
Saco, an umbrella organisation for 21 of Sweden's unions for graduates, presented the 2025 edition of its yearly
Framtidsutsikter
report on March 17th, the same day university applications opened for the 2025 autumn semester.
The report provides a five-year forecast for the career prospects of graduates from a range of graduate degrees, drawing on the knowledge of Saco's 21 member unions.
Here's what they said.
Which graduates will struggle the most to find work?
The majority of careers in Saco's study (33 of a total 55 careers) will have little competition for jobs in five years time.
This includes people studying a role within healthcare or teaching, as well as roles within tech, IT or science.
Some specific careers listed in the study which fall into this category are opticians, chemists, psychologists, dentists, upper secondary school teachers and year 7-9 teachers, mathematicians and engineers.
Within IT, roles in this category include system and software developers and system administrators, for example.
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The next group, which includes 17 different careers, will graduate into a 'balanced' labour market, where demand is roughly the same as supply. This includes doctors, lawyers, teachers of year 6 and below, biologists and vets.
A balanced labour market isn't necessarily a bad thing, the report reads, as it can be a sign of a healthy labour market with good working conditions, fair pay and a high chance of finding employment. In a similar vein, it's not always good news that there is no competition for a job – it can be a sign of low pay and bad working conditions.
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Finally, five groups of graduates will have a lot of competition for employment when looking for a job in five years' time. This group includes architects, people working in communications and museum and cultural workers, as well as
hälsovetare
and
samhällsvetare.
A
hälsovetare
can be a number of different health-related jobs focusing on improving people's health and wellbeing, rather than treatment of illnesses or disease. This includes, for example, people working within public health as well as health consultants employed in the workplace to improve the health of staff.
Samhällsvetare
is another umbrella term which roughly translates to 'social scientist' in English. People in this group may work in project management in business or the civil service, as teachers or administrators in academia, as statisticians or report-writers in interest organisations or in communicative roles.
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Are there any regional variations?
The report also looked into how the likelihood of finding work differs between different regions, between urban and rural areas, and between the north and south of the country.
There are variations depending on where in the country you're looking for a job, it said, with one example being that it's often more difficult to find work in university towns where graduates may want to stay after they finish their studies.
Demand for civil engineers is relatively stable across the country, due to the fact that around 70 percent of people in this group work from home at least once a week. However, demand for civil engineers has not been as high in northern Sweden as previously expected.
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Doctors are more likely to face competition in urban areas, while it's easier for them to find work in rural areas or areas where the population is shrinking.
Lawyers are another example, with the majority working in Stockholm or in other cities and towns where government agencies or larger companies are based.
In general, it's worth looking further afield if you're finding it difficult to find work where you live. According to the report, it's common for the labour market to be balanced in one region but more competitive elsewhere.
