Response to interpellation 2022/23:89 on an active labor market policy

Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)

Madam Speaker! Teresa Carvalho has asked me why I and the government are cutting back on active labor market policies when the government itself notes that the group with weak ties to the labor market will be hit harder than other groups as a result of the recession. Additionally, Teresa Carvalho has asked me which measures I intend to reduce, against the background that I and the government want to steer more towards labor market training and matching services.

Everyone who can work shall do so. The work line needs to be re-established. The labor market policy needs to become more cost-effective and designed so that more people enter employment. Even though the situation on the labor market has improved during 2022, there are problems with continued high unemployment, significant integration problems, and long-term unemployment which, although it has decreased since the pandemic's record-high levels, remains at an all-too-high level. At the same time, there is a large shortage of labor in several areas of the labor market.

To meet this, the matching needs to be improved and the skills shortage must be combated throughout the country. The Government assesses that there is a need for and room for efficiencies in the labor market policy. By prioritizing cost-effective measures that are close to the workplace and contribute to a high search activity, more people can enter employment, while the appropriation for labor market policy programs and measures can be reduced in 2023.

Despite a reduction in the appropriation for labor market policy programs and measures by approximately 1.5 billion in 2023, there is room for a continued increase in measures relative to current levels, with a focus that responds to the challenges in the labor market.

It is about, among other things, matching services, which can contribute to shortened periods of unemployment and to preventing and counteracting long-term unemployment. A continued high number of participants in matching services can also contribute to more contacts with employers and to ensuring that employers' skill supply needs can be better met.

It is also about labor market training that can equip job seekers for the vacant jobs and thereby contribute to counteracting the skills shortage. There is also room for more people to be able to participate in work placements that can provide work experience and improve job opportunities.

The savings in appropriations within labor market policy programs and measures in recent years show that the appropriation has been over-budgeted. The savings in appropriations for 2021 amounted to 942 million kronor, and for 2022, expenditures are estimated to be 1.682 billion kronor lower than budgeted according to Arbetsförmedlingen's latest forecast.

The Government is, of course, prepared to take further measures in the labor market policy area if necessary during the mandate period, should the situation on the labor market deteriorate.

The speech at riksdagen.se, in Swedish (opens in a new tab)

Teresa Carvalho (S)

Madam Speaker! I would, of course, like to begin by thanking the Minister for Employment for the answer, even though my objections still remain regarding the government's policy, which aims to cut back on active labor market measures at the same time as we enter a recession - simply because I fear that this will further exacerbate long-term unemployment.

But let me nevertheless begin with that which we seem to agree on, namely that everyone who can work shall work and that we shall have high requirements on the individual to do everything in their power to make themselves employable.

What sets us apart is that we Social Democrats see that requirements and support are two sides of the same coin, and therefore place as much weight on active labor market policy as on the setting of requirements for individuals. Labor market policy becomes, I would like to say, particularly important now that we see how the demands on the labor market are becoming ever higher, but also how the structural transformation is moving ever faster. That is why we want to invest more in labor market policy, while the government instead chooses to cut back.

We hear that the Minister for Employment defends the cuts by saying that the measures should be cost-effective, and I believe most people agree with that. Every wasted tax krona is a theft from the people, as the former Social Democratic Minister for Social Affairs, Gustav Möller, once expressed it.

But it is not always the cheapest interventions that best help people with great needs, rather the right interventions are needed, which are adapted to the individual's specific circumstances. For some, it can sometimes actually be more profitable in the long run to use more extensive and staff-intensive interventions.

I also think, Madam Speaker, that it is good that we seem to agree on the problem picture – that Sweden has an extensive matching problem. We have a high demand for labor, which is naturally incredibly positive in principle, but at the same time many unemployed people who lack the competencies, the skills, and the education that the employers demand.

I am glad that the Minister for Employment specifically points out the matching problem, but at the same time, it makes it even harder to understand why the government chooses to cut exactly those job-readiness measures by 1.5 billion and additionally adult education by 1 billion, especially in a time when we are heading towards a recession and these resources are needed more than ever. Unlike Johan Pehrson, I conclude that Sweden should invest more in labor market policy and education for adults, to equip people with the skills that will be in demand when the curves turn upwards again.

Madam Speaker! According to the Minister for Employment, there will be more and better support for individuals, despite the significant cuts. It does not add up, especially not when the private matching services and the labor market trainings are to be shielded from the cuts.

I want to ask the Minister for Employment if he can guarantee that there will not be fewer people in labor market training during this year. And if so, what is it that will be removed when the appropriation 1:3 within expenditure area 14 is to receive a reduction of 1.5 billion? For the sake of credibility, I believe the Minister for Employment would need to specify whether it is employment support, support for those who want to start their own business, skills mapping, guidance, preparatory measures, or perhaps work training that Arbetsförmedlingen is to reduce?

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Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)

Madam Speaker! It is important to keep this separate and realize that we, with the previous government, had large appropriation savings during 2021 and also clearly during 2022. This can be moved forward; it goes straight to Arbetsförmedlingen. I am therefore talking about the administrative appropriation. When it comes to the programs, with the level we are now establishing, one will be able to have activities in parity with the previous ones.

One must see the overall picture. We are making a gigantic investment in the expenditure area. If one adds up what we most often talk about here, everything from the programs to the labor market training, the new start jobs, and the upcoming establishment jobs, one must also add that we are raising the unemployment insurance and that we are adding transition support.

Enormly large collective efforts are now being made to ensure that we increase competence in Sweden and meet the skills shortage, and so that people who fall into unemployment do not remain in it for too long but can transition and quickly become eligible for new jobs. It is, therefore, a substantial, collective increase in ambition that is being undertaken.

Regarding the support that was mentioned and the view on education – both komvux and folkbildningen – I want to say that it is something that I have debated previously. Let me state that we are fulfilling what the previous government decided in its plans. There are many pandemic supports that are now ending. There, the previous government established what should apply, and you in your party often received support for that from us in the Liberalerna and other parties.

Now that the Social Democrats have ended up in opposition, they advocate for a different policy. They are proposing something different than what they did before the election. Now they no longer want the pandemic support to end, but rather that the support should continue to remain at the same high level as it was previously. This applies to everything from the expanded investment in regional vocational adult education and regional vocational adult education flex to vocational Swedish in welfare and regional vocational adult education with combined education programs.

When these supports now run out, we in this government nevertheless choose to provide funds to, for example, get more places at regional vocational adult education, which is an important part when it comes to getting people into work, not least people who are far from the labor market. The same applies to places at folk high schools, reinforcements for study associations, and so on.

These supports were time-limited by the previous government and have ceased. We already saw how the situation was during last year. I thought it was good that temporary investments were made. We have supported this from the Liberals' side, not least during covid, but now we are returning to a more normal high level.

We agree that we should have a broad and active labor market policy, but it must also be effective. In surveys where different countries are compared, we can see that Sweden's allocation to active labor market policy in 2016 was the third largest among the EU countries as a share of GDP, and in 2019 we were in second place in the OECD if one also excludes personnel costs and administration. Yet, we still have a very high unemployment rate.

I thought of Gustav Möller's spirit, and his winged words, which were invoked here: One must not waste resources, but one must use resources generously. All the billions we invest shall go towards effective measures to get people into their own real jobs.

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Teresa Carvalho (S)

Madam Speaker! Let me first state that I also did not receive any answer as to which measures are affected by the cuts of 1.5 billion. These are clear cuts. If one places the table from this year's budget next to the table from last year, one sees a clear difference of 1.5 billion, and within adult education, it is approximately 1 billion. How the Minister for Employment can frame this as an investment is incomprehensible to me. I would like to say that it is unprofessional.

I assume that the Minister for Employment knows that the government can actually decide to continue with an initiative if they think it is good, even if it was previously time-limited. So, we Social Democrats chose to do that in our budget alternative, because we see that we have a serious matching problem in the Swedish labor market. I thought we were in agreement on that. We have job seekers who need to be equipped with measures to be able to take the jobs that exist and that will exist when the downturn turns upwards again.

Then we hear that the Minister for Employment thinks we can cut back on labor market policy because Arbetsförmedlingen has not spent all the money. I think that becomes a rather strange excuse. It is not that there is no need. That is not why there has been money left over. Furthermore, we know that the need will increase.

But what this is about is the Swedish Public Employment Service's lack of referral capacity. In plain terms, it is about the cuts to the Swedish Public Employment Service's administrative appropriations that the right-wing parties managed to push through during the last parliamentary term, despite being in opposition. They led to the Swedish Public Employment Service having such a streamlined organization that the employment officers do not quite have enough time to meet the job seekers and refer them to the measures they need.

When, for example, the Swedish Police Authority has had a surplus, I have not heard the government parties say that they want to cut back on the police. Instead, it has been said that the police need long-term capacity reinforcements to be able to put the resources to work. Obviously, one must meet Arbetsförmedlingen's challenges in the same way.

Everyone understands that this is about the government parties and the Sweden Democrats simply having very low ambitions for the labor market policy. It is also nothing new. All the Tidö parties have acted in that way for a long time in this chamber.

I also want to say something about the fact that we allocate a lot of resources to labor market policy as a whole. It is nothing that I, as a Social Democrat, am ashamed of, because we always strive for full employment. We see that both the individual and society have a responsibility here.

We completely agree that we have far too high unemployment. But I would also like to remind that we have the highest employment rate in 30 years, which is also in the top tier of the EU. So everything is not pitch black, but there is something we are also doing right.

The Minister for Employment also says that the government is prepared to take measures if the labor market deteriorates during the mandate period. It is still a bit pleasing, one might say. At the same time, the follow-up question arises: How high must unemployment be for the Minister for Employment to be willing to take active measures instead of just making cuts? And what are these measures, and how is the government preparing to meet that reality? Everyone, including the government itself, still makes the assessment that we are heading towards a recession which will also lead to increased unemployment.

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Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)

Madam Speaker! There is a difference when one has a development. Enormous investments are being made. It is many billions that are now being invested.

We have invested enormously in labor market policy over the years. There has been a focus on ensuring that the school system functions and that the integration policy functions, and then the labor market policy has also functioned somewhat more easily. Since the financial crisis in 2008-2009, we have seen – then I was also here in the chamber but in a different place than now – that unemployment first went down, then it went up after covid, and after that, it has started to tick downwards again. That is because one has had a labor market policy whose content, in monetary terms, has been at approximately the level we are now establishing.

The idea is that unemployment should continue to decrease year after year. The people who have been unemployed get into jobs, but then new people come in. It can be structural changes, and for this, we have other tools that are being heavily invested in. But people who are relatively far from the labor market and are registered with Arbetsförmedlingen meet the collective measures. There are still 11,000 skilled employees at Arbetsförmedlingen who work every day to help people get into jobs.

Then we have the labor market trainings. We have the nystartsjobb. We will get etableringsjobb. All of this is done so that people can get into jobs. To ensure that there are not more people who become long-term unemployed, intermittently unemployed, or short-term unemployed, we must ensure that we have a functioning school. Young people must pass both primary school and, hopefully, upper secondary school. People must continue to study at komvux at those levels. If this is done, the money will suffice for the level that has now reduced unemployment.

I agree with Teresa Carvalho that it is very good that we have high employment. We have one of the highest employment levels in Europe. It is brilliant! It is for the good of us all. It is prosperity being created. It is nation-builders who contribute to this country.

But when unemployment in Sweden is too high, and we have seen that what has been invested in Sweden has not yielded maximum efficiency - that can be seen in international comparisons - we need to do something else. Then it is about the benefit system, language training and other things.

We have pointed out the need for a benefit reform so that it will always pay to work. I am very pleased to hear here that everyone who can work shall work and that there is no opposition to a counter-performance requirement for social assistance.

It is an enormous progress. I wish it had been so for the last 20 years. But it is good that one has changed its mind in that area - better late than never.

Now resources are being invested. And the skilled people, for example at Arbetsförmedlingen, can now, after a tough mandate period where it was another government in power, settle down and slowly but surely work with the municipalities. They have been given the assignment by us to ensure that more people get into internships, labor market training, and subsidized employment. It is, so to speak, Arbetsförmedlingen that does this. I cannot sit at the department and manage anything other than by saying: You shall increase this, and I want you to come back with reports on how it is going. It is very important that people do not become passive.

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Teresa Carvalho (S)

Madam Speaker! I would like to thank Johan Pehrson for this debate. This is our first interpellation debate - there will be many upcoming interpellation debates - on labor market policy.

We heard here at the end that the Minister for Employment tried to create the impression that we Social Democrats worsened the opportunities for Arbetsförmedlingen during the last parliamentary term, but that there is to be peace and quiet now. I want to remind that what happened during the last parliamentary term was that we, not just on one occasion but on two occasions, did not get our budget through. What instead became reality was a pure Alexander cut against Arbetsförmedlingen. It resulted in severely worsened opportunities for Arbetsförmedlingen to meet the unemployed, especially where unemployment is greatest.

I do not know where the Minister for Employment gets the image that Arbetsförmedlingen is now well-equipped. In any case, I meet few who share that image after these substantial cuts.

I would again like to remind that we, even though we agree that unemployment is too high, have a comparatively high employment rate. And at the change of power, when the right-wing government took over, we actually saw a falling long-term unemployment for the first time in a very long time. So we Social Democrats did something right in the labor market policy anyway. We certainly didn't do everything right, but obviously something.

In the time we are facing now, with a recession, the right-wing government therefore chooses to cut back on labor market policy. It will be just as good or better support anyway, says the Minister for Employment. Perhaps he has a magic wand. Let me doubt it!

I believe, Madam Speaker, that it is more likely that what we are witnessing now is a classic bourgeois wishful thinking or, in the worst case, a capitulation to unemployment.

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Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)

Madam Speaker! What happened during the previous parliamentary term was that the government put forward a rather extensive reform program for Arbetsförmedlingen which had major effects, along with the fact that they did not have support for a unified budget. They chose to govern anyway. And they really wanted to govern, one can say calmly.

It is clear that then this effect occurs, but then it is reasonable that one takes responsibility for it and does not blame the opposition. I would never come up with the idea of blaming the opposition in here for the fact that unemployment is as it is. It is not you who have contributed to it.

The skilled employees who now get the chance to work with this orientation at Arbetsförmedlingen have the capacity. I just want to emphasize that with simple mathematics, it is 11,000 employees who have fantastic opportunities to help people who are registered with Arbetsförmedlingen. That is, after all, plus 330,000 who, so to speak, are registered as unemployed or in other programs.

It is about helping these people with the billions we invest in the administration and the billions we invest in the programs and the labor market training, combined with what is being done regarding transition support. This provides good conditions to transition and to ensure that many more people can become community builders in a positive sense and get into jobs. With this, we can ensure that we solve the skills shortage.

Madam Speaker! Finally, I want to add that we see more and more employers acting very proactively and who are not sitting around complaining that there is no one. They make active efforts and ensure that people are welcome. And they receive paid training. So, many efforts are being made to solve the skills shortage, and I think that is good. It is not unreasonable that one has a responsibility to invest in people when it comes to a new job. It is also fundamental to the new transition model. One has a responsibility to equip people who are at work but also the new ones who are to enter.

Thank you for a good debate! We will hear from each other again – I am absolutely sure of that.

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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