The labour market for young adults in Sweden

Dr. Susanna Holzer

TCO ( The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees )

"Fighting Youth Unemployment: Lessons from the Netherlands and Sweden"Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies (SIEPS) and the Netherlands Embassy in Stockholm Hilton, Stockholm, October 16th, 2014

Challenges we face when trying to understand the labour market situation of the youth

The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees

23 percent are unemployed

12 percent are unemployed

7 percent are unemployed

5-8 percent are defined as NEETs

We want all 15-24 year-olds to be either in education or in work

The labour market for 15-24 year-olds ..in short

The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees

Population(1,22m)

Labour force(663t)

Not in the labour force(557t)

Employed(507t)

Unemployed(156t ~23%) Full time students

(75t ~ 48%)

Source: Swedish labour force survey, Statistics Sweden

“Full time unemployed”(80t ~52%) Or 6,6% of p.

“Just students”(467-517t)

NEET(40-90 t) Or 5-8 % of p.

Education is often pointed out as a key factor..

The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees

19.7%

63.9%

15.9%

0.4%

Elementary Upper secondaryTertiaty Missing info

Source: Swedish labour force survey 2011, Statistics Sweden

- Level of education of unemployed 20-24 year-olds in 2011

The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees

Th

e la

bo

ur m

arke

t

NEETsLack of education

Lack of work

experience

Friction

So

cia

l exc

lusi

on

Target group for analysis and political action

”Job ready”

How should we focus?

Lack of education

2013 22 percent left elementary education without degrees in all subjects - 60 percent of the children who showed weak results had low educated parents…

Of all who entered upper secondary education in 2011, 77 percent were still on the same educational track three years later. Half of the drop-outs changed educational tracks. Yet about 10 percent left school/dropped out.

- Higher rate of dropouts from the “individual programs” - those who were weaker already from the start…

The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees

The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees

• Do not let young people leave school without upper secondary education qualifications

• An educational guarantee Make sure that young adults have the right and opportunities to repair educational failures up to the age of 25 years.

• More focus on helping the weaker student early on.

=> In pipeline is to do upper secondary education mandatory - have not seen the conditions for this reform yet..

Actions called for…

The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees

Lack of work experience - actions• Increased on-the-job practice in the vocational oriented tracks in

the upper secondary education

• Increased opportunities to include on-the-job-experience in former more theoretical tracks with in the tertiary education.

• YA-jobs – (a trainee job) in line with the vocational oriented upper secondary education the young have gone through

- Weak demand and slow start…

The current government argues that by opening up for more trainees in the public sector, this will engage up to 30 000 young adults.

Þ Risk is that trainees are crowding out existing job opportunities and that the trainees are being used as cheap labour. The conditions for these jobs are still to be presented.

The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees

Apprenticeships in Sweden

• Some few branches have them – carpentry and some special crafts genres.

• A huge wish from politicians to introduce apprenticeship systems • Weak backup from the market• Weak demand from the students• Lack of clear operating systems • Lack of support structures

On both national and on EU level apprenticeships should be supplemented by concrete strategies, common rules and minimum requirements for apprenticeship systems. Especially in order to prevent the young to be explored as cheap labour.

The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees

Thank you for listening!

Susanna.Holzer@tco.se

Education is a central factor

The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees

Source: Eurostat

- unemployment rate for three educational levels (20-24 y)

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

35.0

40.0

45.0

38.3

16.4

14.7

Less than primary, primary and lower secondary (levels 0-2)

Upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary (levels 3 and 4)

Short-cycle tertiary, bachelor or equivalent, master or equivalent and doctoral or equivalent (levels 5-8)

Why active labour market policies ?

The Swedish Confederation for Professional Employees

Source: Swedish labour force survey, Statistics Sweden

Rate of short and long term underpayment (6 moth or more) in percent (15-24y)

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 20130.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

20.0

25.0

30.0

Short UE Long UE

156 000

23 000~15%