How the Swedish Employment Services fail to assist the unemployed in their job search

Wednesday, 04 July 2012
Last year, the Swedish government boasted that it will reduce unemployment to between 4 and 5 percent by 2015. Although, external pressures is now being observed as a factor affecting the Swedish job market, two things are happening here – one is that there are still lots of positions that go unfilled with job seekers not aware of those places and the job requirement are so inflexible that those with the nearest skills are not allowed to drape in. Then the second point is that the official job centre is failing to assist job seekers especially those who don’t look like “real Swedish” people.

If there is something in the Swedish economic psyche that makes the country’s macro economic sector less attractive, it is its jobs market. In the UK its jobs market is really broken and not supposed to function given the position the country places itself in international competitiveness. But in Sweden it is worse. Despite all the talks, data presentation and the “hype”, the Swedish jobs market is no good.

The characteristic of the market is made in such a that there is a sector of the population that can get all the help it needs to improve on their skills and get direction on how to get a job. One can say, this is the services to the population that the market was design for. Yeah? Wrong.

Half of all long-term unemployed, have no documented help finding jobs via the official Swedish job centres or the Swedish employment services. This means that the Employment Service is failing with one of its key tasks – which are to help people get jobs. Among those in the population who are foreign born, 55 percent are more or less left adrift according to an internal report from the Swedish employment services reports the Swedish daily, Dagens Nyehter.

A country which has boasted to have surplus public finances laying here and there and that which, despite the economic crisis, has been enjoying real economic growth, But unemployment still remain above 8 percent just in the USA - though in the USA there is intense authority taking place there with public sector being trimmed ofF work force.

The problem with the Swedish jobs centre reflect the feeling in the county – “we do not want to work with them”. As trivial as this may look – that is how it is. The report, which was completed in April, classified as internal working document, and has not yet been presented to the Director General, Angeles Bermudez Swankvist talk of agitated voices within the authority of the blackout, and says that the authority work today for the most part consists of controls and tries to massage the unemployment figures.

Employment Service Deputy Director Jan-Olof Dahlgren such views as one would expect.
“Not so, the study captures the shortcomings we have already seen and we are now under way to try to fix,” he says.
“It is true that in recent years not enough time has been able to devote to give the unemployed people the support that many of them need. We have a disproportionate number of applicants per intermediary. But this year the government has greatly increased our funding, then in November we have employed close to 2,000 new employees. When they get into the work we expect to improve our services.”

49 percent of the report's 600 randomly selected long-term unemployed do not have in their mandatory action plans fully registered activities. There is no documentation about the person's job search strategies and applications. This happened despite the fact that nine out of ten are offered service "Finding Work", with job coaching, follow-up of pending jobs, job clubs, instruction, recruitment meetings etc..

The numbers of directions to get a job are "very few". As for follow-up of the job search, many have no activities at all. For those who have it, it is often four months between contacts with the officer. This despite the fact that direct assistance from the administrator often is everything, according to the governments own evaluation authority IFAU.
Judging by the reviewers' questionnaire with relevant advisers, It seems to not be a matter of sloppy documentation: three-quarters of working mediators were not aware of any activities that were not reflected by the notes.

The unemployment Service's own reviewers, four experienced advisers, notes that the vast majority of the 600 unemployed persons belonging to vulnerable groups with significantly greater need for help than what has been achieved: All have been enrolled in at least eight months, and many speak bad Swedish.

But very few have offered services such as "Improve your job," Guide to Work "," Education for labour "or" Clarify your working conditions, "which according to the authors would have been needed.

In addition, less than one in ten saw any action or measure regarding the compulsory assessment of the labour market to determine what it means for the individual applicant's chances of finding a job.

In the survey, the working mediators confirmed the frustration at the lack of opportunities to offer help. The single most important reason is said to be lack of time - too much management - and for too many applicants. Many also call for special activities for job seekers with poor knowledge of Swedish.
By Scancomark.se Team

This could partly explain why technology companies and parts of the health sector are crying out for highly skilled personnel, though there is are still many skills of surplus of supply.
This applies to skills such as journalists, photographers and a sailor where getting a job in Sweden is as hard as trying to get the excrement of a snake.

A relatively new acquaintance on the list of occupations with the worst prospects is that of securities dealers and stock broker. Traditionally restaurant assistant and secretaries are deeply rooted in the no go areas for job seekers.

For stock traders and security dealers, their job pool is shrinking because the financial industry is reducing personnel from the once successful brokerage engines.
"Some of the excess is due to structural changes in various economic sectors. Some occupations are also relatively small in terms of number of employees, which can make individual changes have a major impact on statistics, "says Håkan Gustavsson.

The Swedish Employment Service predicts that employment on the whole the demand for skills will increase by 5,000 people during the second half of 2012 and then by a further 15,000 people in 2013.

If the forecast is realistic, it would means a sharp slowdown in growth rate compared to 2011, when the number of employed increased by 93,000 persons.
The list is that which show the occupations that are in short supply and those that are over supplied.

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