Latest news with #SwedishPublicEmploymentService
Local Sweden
4 days ago
- Business
- Local Sweden
IN DATA: Where in Sweden is unemployment rising the most?
Nearly 20,000 people more people were unemployed in Sweden in three months from March to the end of June, compared to the same period in 2024, taking the unemployment rate to to 6.9 percent, with Västerbotten, home to the bankrupt Northvolt battery factory, seeing the sharpest rise. Advertisement As many as 363,000 people were registered as unemployed in the second quarter of 2025, up from 344,000 in 2024, according to the latest statistics from the Swedish Public Employment Service. The biggest rise in unemployment was in Västerbotten, where the number of people registered as unemployed shot up from 4,992 in the second quarter of 2024 to 7,417 in the second quarter of 2025. "The largest increase has occurred in Västerbotten, where extensive notices, layoffs and bankruptcy in battery manufacturing have had a major impact on the labour market," Marcus Löwing, the service's labour market analyst, in a press release. Uppsala country also saw a sharp rise in unemployment. Only four counties saw the level of unemployment fall: Dalarna, Gotland, Gävleborg, and Norrbotten. The county of Skåne had the highest level of unemployment, with 9 percent out of work, while Norrbotten in the far north had the lowest, with only 3.8 percent of the workforce unemployed. Advertisement A report from the National Institute of Economic Research, also published on Wednesday, which measures unemployment differently, predicted that unemployment would start to decline from the start of next year, when the economy is expected to come out of its slump. The institute reduced its forecast for Sweden's growth in 2025 from 1 percent to 0.7 percent, a reduction it blamed on lower than expected spending by Swedes on consumption. "We have for a long time been wrong on household consumption, I must admit," the institute's head of forecasting, Ylva Hedén Westerdahl, said. "It is not growing as fast as we believed it would. Perhaps that's not so strange when you consider that prices have risen by 30 percent in three years and that we have had higher interest rates."
Local Sweden
30-07-2025
- Business
- Local Sweden
LISTED: The jobs that could be exempt from Swedish work permit salary limit
Sweden's Migration Agency last week published a list of job titles which could be exempted from a future new salary threshold for work permits. Engineering, technician and IT roles made up eleven of the 20 jobs paying below median salary which have seen the highest international recruitment. Advertisement The Migration Agency was in February asked to propose a list of job titles which could be exempted from a future salary threshold for work permits, which the government has said it plans to set at Sweden's median salary. This is currently 37,100 kronor, but the Migration Agency has based its analysis on a salary of 35,600 kronor, which was the median salary in 2023. The Migration Agency included all 152 job titles put forward in an analysis by the Swedish Public Employment Service, which The Local reported on here, marking which of these represent a "heightened risk of workplace exploitation or abuse", which require workers to be Swedish citizens, which have been subject to labour migration in the past, and which the government inquiry into the new salary requirement proposed should be ineligible for work permits. As we reported last week, only four jobs - cooks and pantry chefs, cleaners, personal assistants and berry pickers - were excluded from the exemption list because of the last two reasons. Only three job titles on the list - officers, special officers and soldiers - required Swedish citizenship. This brings the number of jobs the Migration Agency is proposing as possible contenders for exception from a future salary threshold for work permits down to 145. It is important to remember that for more than a year the government has delayed moving forward on its proposal for a new salary threshold for work permits set at the median salary. That means that this list is purely advisory and there is no way under current legislation that these exceptions could be applied. Rather than repeat the public employment service's list (for which you can find our English translation here), we have decided to strip out the jobs for which people were in fact hired internationally in 2023 and 2024, starting with those which have seen the highest amount of migration. Advertisement READ ALSO: Engineers "a big group" Hanna Geurtsen, the Migration Agency official who oversaw the analysis, told the Local that it had shown that many high-skilled jobs for which Swedish employers recruit internationally offered lowest salaries below the Swedish median. "Engineers is a big group. You might think that cleaners and pizza chefs make up the largest portion of labour migration. But that is just not true," she said in an interview about the list. "A large proportion of labour migration is for job titles that earn higher salaries, well above median, but there are skilled jobs in the middle section, salary-wise, where you will have to weigh wisely here so that you don't put up obstacles to labour migration that that you don't intend to." Engineering, technician and IT roles made up eleven of the 20 job titles on the Migration Agency's list of jobs proposed for exemption which have seen the highest recent levels of labour migration. Advertisement In its report, the Migration Agency opted not to limit the list of proposed job titles to those for which employers have recently recruited overseas, with Geurtsen arguing that it would be "unwise not to exempt a job title from a heightened salary threshold just because in the past, there have not been any applications within that field,' as this did not necessarily mean that employers would not want to hire internationally for these roles in the future. The agency did, however, mark which job titles have experienced recent labour migration, so we have stripped down their list to show the 95 job titles which qualify where there is labour migration. Of these, there were three job titles where the shortage was only regional: Geologists and geophysicists and specialists in environmental protection and environmental technology, which were both required in Upper Norrland, and taxi drivers, for which there was only a shortage in Stockholm and upper Norrland. Membership Plus subscribers can hear an in-depth interview with Hanna Geurtsen from the Migration Agency on the list of work permit exemptions in the Sweden in Focus Extra podcast, out on July 30th.
Local Sweden
26-07-2025
- Climate
- Local Sweden
Why Swedes stay home in summer (and it's not for the rain)
This week: 'Cloudburst-like rain' and what to do if your house is flooded, why Swedes stay home in summer, and having babies. For Membership+ subscribers: the jobs that might be exempted from work permit salary requirements, and summer drownings. Advertisement In this week's episode we talk about 'cloudburst-like rain' and what to do if your house is flooded. We talk about why Swedes tend to stay home in the summer. And we talk about what it's like to have a baby in Sweden. For Membership+ subscribers, we reveal the jobs the Swedish Public Employment Service has suggested could be exempted from a future new salary threshold for work permits. And we talk about why there's been a spike in drowning and whether better swimming lessons could be the solution. Host Richard Orange is joined this week by regular panelists Becky Waterton and Emma Löfgren. Here are links to some of the topics discussed in the episode: Floods Swedish summer Having babies Work permit salary exemptions Drowning You can listen to the free episode here: Or follow Sweden in Focus wherever you listen to podcasts. Advertisement Get Membership+ to listen to all The Local's podcasts Sign up now and get early, ad-free access to a full-length episode of the Sweden in Focus podcast every weekend, as well as Sweden in Focus Extra every Wednesday. Please visit the link that applies to you and get a 40% discount on Membership+ Read more about Membership+ in our help centre. Already have Membership+ but not receiving all the episodes? Go to the podcast tab on your account page to activate your subscription. More
Local Sweden
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Local Sweden
Swedish Migration Agency to publish work permit salary limit exemptions
Sweden's Migration Agency will next week publish a list of the jobs which could potentially be exempted from a new salary threshold for work permits, but it stresses that there's little chance of these exemptions coming into force any time soon. Advertisement According to Hanna Geurtsen, deputy head of the Migration Agency's new work permit "special focus area", the list will be based on another list of 152 job titles provided in a memo to the agency from the Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen) on June 1st. "We will have a list, but it will not be 'the list of exemptions'," Geurtsen stressed. "It will instead be part of the underlying information and reasoning that the government needs to take into consideration if they want to proceed with this proposal." The list is set to be published by the end of next week, well ahead of the August 1st deadline given by Sweden's then labour and integration minister, Mats Persson, when he requested it in February. In the press release announcing the order, he said that "opportunities for exceptions for professions where there is a shortage" were "of great importance". The Migration Agency has taken the Arbetsförmedlingen list of 152 job titles and then noted down which job titles have in the past been taken by foreign workers in significant numbers; which, such as the police or the military, require Swedish citizenship; and which have in the past been abused by employers or subject to workforce exploitation. Advertisement Arbetsförmedlingen's list in turn whittled down the 429 job titles listed in the Swedish Standard Classification of Occupations (SSYK) system which both pay less than Sweden's median salary and for which employers also have problems recruiting from within Sweden. Geurtsen stressed that because the government had yet to propose the legislation for a future work permit salary threshold with exceptions, the list presented next week could only be advisory. Since a government inquiry into the salary threshold and exemptions was published in February 2024, with consultation responses received in April 2024, the government has for more than a year delayed taking the next step, which would be to submit a draft bill to the Council of Legislation. This means that the date the inquiry envisaged for the higher salary requirement (at least 100 percent of the median salary) and possible exceptions – June 1st – passed without even a draft bill published, let alone one submitted to and voted through by parliament. "What's important to understand here is that there is currently no legislation which would regulate a salary requirement," Geurtsen told The Local. "This list cannot come into force. It doesn't have any legal status until they tell us how they want to legislate. They also need to decide who in the future will have the mandate to decide on the list. We don't have that mandate." In particular, she said, it's important to understand that the exceptions cannot be applied to the current salary threshold, which is set at 80 percent of the median salary, as this is based on different legislation, the försörjningskrav, which concerns the amount the government judges people need to earn to live comfortably. Alongside the list, the Migration Agency will also explain why the order it was given in February has been challenging to fulfil. "Our press release will stress the fact that this task was difficult to execute due to lack of general definitions and a lack of methodology," Geurtsen said. Advertisement The request, she noted, had given no guidance on how to judge what "risk of abuse or workplace exploitation" would be enough to bar a job title from having an exception. Another complication was that Arbetsförmedlingen was asked to provide its list by June 1st, and the median salary was then updated on June 17th. This meant that the list it provided was out of date only 16 days after it was passed to the Migration Agency.
Local Sweden
10-06-2025
- Business
- Local Sweden
Almost 17,000 summer jobs still available in Sweden
If you're looking for a summer job in Sweden, don't give up just yet – there are still thousands of job openings in everything from the hospitality industry to healthcare. Advertisement 'There are almost 17,000 summer jobs available right now,' Alva Johansson, analyst at the Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen), told the TT newswire. A total of 130,314 summer job ads have been posted via the service's job site, Platsbanken, this spring, somewhat fewer than the 133,144 job ads last year. Although hiring for more permanent positions often grinds to a halt during the summer, it can also be an ideal period for breaking into the Swedish labour market. Full-time employees are legally entitled to four consecutive weeks off during June-August, so there are plenty of temporary substitute openings available on top of seasonal work. While many jobs require Swedish, the summer season often offers more opportunities than usual for those with limited Swedish skills. The majority of jobs are found in the healthcare and social services sector, but there are also plenty of openings at for example cafés and restaurants and in cleaning. Even if the summer job does not exactly match your level of experience or future career aspirations in Sweden, it can be an opportunity rather than a step down. In Sweden, seven out of ten jobs are obtained through personal connections, so using the summer to build networks and industry knowledge can be particularly useful for newcomers. Advertisement Seasonal jobs for English-speakers may for example be available in major cities or tourism destinations, where it is more important that you can communicate with international tourists than have fluent Swedish. In the healthcare industry, there may also be opportunities to work as a personal care assistant for someone whose native language you speak. Another option could be to look for entry-level jobs such as a cleaner. Although many foreigners in Sweden need a work permit to work in the country, EU citizens, as well as non-EU citizens here on other permits, such as student permits or permits as accompanying family members, are able to work without needing a work permit first.
