Response to interpellation 2023/24:111 on plans to meet increased layoffs and rising unemployment
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 L argues that the labor market policy needs to become more cost-effective and that the government is reinforcing Arbetsförmedlingen with 200 million SEK to meet increased unemployment and strengthen control work 1. L argues that establishment jobs, an increased job tax credit, and more places within vocational colleges and adult education strengthen the work line 1. L argues that the shortage of education and lack of Swedish language skills are met with investments in regular education 2 and that economic policy that creates growth is the basis for meeting layoffs 2. L emphasizes the importance of efficiency, responsibility, and hunting for fraud 3. 4 S argues that the government is pushing through large cuts in the job policy and that Arbetsförmedlingen receives less money next year 4. S argues that the government is withdrawing active measures 4 and cutting resources for labor market training, guidance, and matching 4. S proposes a doubling of the number of places within the labor market trainings 5. S argues that the government only engages in cuts when unemployment rises 6. 6 S believes that the government is implementing cuts that lead to passivity and that Arbetsförmedlingen is being slimmed down with fewer employment officers and local offices 6. S argues that the prioritization is terrible as the budget is cut while they want to lower the tax on snuff and plastic bags 6. 7 L argues that the previous Social Democratic government closed many offices at Arbetsförmedlingen and dismantled the foundations of prosperity by not securing a functioning energy supply 7. L also emphasizes that the individual has their own obligations to be employable 7.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Teresa Carvalho has asked me what my and the government's preparedness and plan are to meet increased warnings and rising unemployment.
Unemployment and long-term unemployment remain high despite a strong demand for labor since the pandemic. Labor market policy needs to be designed so that more people get into work and so that it becomes more cost-effective.
In the budget proposal for 2024, an increase of 200 million kronor in the administrative grant for Arbetsförmedlingen is proposed to meet increased unemployment and strengthen the control work. Furthermore, the government has decided to implement the regulatory changes necessary for placements with establishment jobs to be realized. The establishment jobs are expected to contribute to increasing the opportunities for newly arrived persons and the long-term unemployed to establish themselves in the labor market. Now, a great responsibility rests on the parties to ensure that the necessary agreements are concluded so that the establishment jobs become a reality.
Together with other proposals in the budget bill, for example an enhanced earned income tax credit for low- and middle-income earners as well as more places within both the university college and the vocational adult education, the proposed investments in labor market policy contribute to strengthening the work line.
In the regulatory letter for 2023, Arbetsförmedlingen was tasked, among other things, to continue to strengthen and develop its work with labor market policy measures and employer contacts, as well as to improve the professional and geographical mobility among job seekers.
Arbetsförmedlingen has a national redundancy management and extensive experience of acting in cases of large-scale redundancies. The agency has developed specific routines for these situations and is prepared to activate its redundancy organization.
I closely follow the developments in the labor market and how Arbetsförmedlingen carries out its mission to meet the needs of both job seekers and employers.
Teresa Carvalho (S)
Mr. Speaker! Now unemployment is increasing in Sweden. Employment is decreasing. More people register as job seekers at Arbetsförmedlingen; fewer leave from there to go out into jobs. The number of advertisements for new staff is decreasing, and the vacancies stand like poles in the ground. This is happening at the same time as many industries and entire labor market regions paradoxically struggle with staff shortages.
From this, one should reasonably conclude that more investments are now needed in active labor market policies, in measures to equip the unemployed for the jobs that exist and those that will emerge when the tide turns. But Johan Pehrson chooses a completely different strategy. He is now pushing through large cuts in the job policy – what he just described as cost efficiencies.
The government's so-called job policy is now being criticized from the right, the left, and the center. Both LO and Svenskt Näringsliv are giving it a thumbs down, not to mention all the unemployed people whom the Minister for Employment has accused of being lazy, while at the same time he withdraws the necessary measures they need to be in demand on the labor market.
Johan Pehrson also claims that he is strengthening Arbetsförmedlingen. But in the government's own budget table, it is clearly and explicitly stated that Arbetsförmedlingen received just over 7.6 billion in 2023 and next year will receive barely 7.4 billion, i.e., specifically 250 million kronor less to meet, help, and set requirements for the job seekers. That Johan Pehrson calls this an investment is only because he had initially signaled a much larger cut. That the cut is now not quite as large as he originally intended is hardly the same as an investment.
Furthermore, it is not only the agency's mandate itself that is affected by Johan Pehrson's cuts, but also the toolbox.
If one adds up the right-wing budgets of recent years, we are soon at a point where we are approaching a halving of the appropriations for the labor market policy measures, which finance, among other things, labor market training, guidance, start-your-own-business support, skills mapping, matching, work training, introductory jobs and so on.
So, Mr. Speaker, the government's answer to my question regarding what plans the government has to meet the now rising unemployment does not impress. I actually do not know what is most audacious – whether it is that the Minister for Employment does not quite manage to stand up for his own cuts without trying to describe them as cost efficiencies and even investments, or whether he first cuts the resources and then tells the agency to strengthen the work with the same.
Even Johan Pehrson must realize that this does not really hold together. No one, not even the Liberals, Mr. Speaker, can both eat the cake and keep it at the same time.
I should perhaps have phrased the question differently, so I will make a new attempt: Do Johan Pehrson and the government have an ambition to try to push back unemployment now that it is rising, or is the Minister for Employment content with following the unemployment closely, to quote the answer?
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Active labor market policy does not exist in a vacuum in a cosmos, but it is here and now. It is influenced by the reality we see in Sweden, where very many people are under-educated and very many people unfortunately do not master Swedish. We are now trying to meet all of this with various measures so that they can be eligible for jobs, which are the basis for society's prosperity, as Teresa Carvalho says.
Where do the jobs come from then? They come from the fact that there are people who are prepared to run companies, to take a risk, and that there are people who are prepared for and understand the importance of educating themselves and take a great personal responsibility for this.
The educational shortage that has persisted for a longer period is not something that can be "washed away" in a day or even a year. Therefore, a large part of the government's labor market policy focuses on regular education. I am very pleased that adult education is now receiving substantial supplements in these difficult times and that people who have been unemployed for a longer period have the opportunity to educate themselves; it is very important. Not least, I am pleased that the university college (yrkeshögskolan), which is actually a liberal initiative and was established under a previous liberal, bourgeois government, is also growing to ever higher levels, as many people really need to retrain. Becoming unemployed is bad, but not having the opportunity to educate oneself is the worst. Some jobs come, and some jobs go. We know that many jobs will now come, not least in connection with the green transition.
Back to how work opportunities, jobs, are created. This happens after good opportunities for education, and there we have a quite extensive budget. I see that Teresa Carvalho actually has it in front of her. If the Speaker asks the member to look it up, she will see how much money is being turned over - it is quite a substantial amount of resources, which I think is important - to help people away from exclusion and unemployment to self-sufficiency and the empowerment to shape their own lives and contribute to society.
But we must also see that we have an economic crisis - in the world, in many ways, and not least in Sweden. We are hit very hard by high inflation which leads to high interest rates, which means that the labor market is now under heavy pressure. If one does not get to grips with that problem first, it will be very difficult to ensure that new jobs are created, or that the layoff notices issued in Grums or Lesjöfors recently are not carried out, but that one succeeds in managing this at the companies so that the employees can keep their jobs, if they want to.
A plan to meet an increased number of layoffs and rising unemployment must, therefore, always begin with an economic policy that ensures Sweden returns to growth.
Teresa Carvalho (S)
Mr. Speaker! It is interesting to hear Johan Pehrson argue that more education is needed in the labor market policy. I completely agree with that.
It is just that Johan Pehrson's enthusiasm for adult education, which was what he spoke about above all else, echoes rather emptily considering that as recently as last year he reduced the state's resources for adult education by just over 1 billion kronor. That he is now putting back some of it is not enough. There will still be less money for adult education next year than there was in the S-government's last budget bill.
I am beginning to recognize the pattern. Johan Pehrson cuts the budget allocations, and then he calls it an investment. It is starting to become tiresome, and it is absurd! It obviously does not seem to help that I refer to the budget tables, so let me, for the sake of clarity, try to illustrate the whole thing in another way.
We imagine that Johan Pehrson has ten apples. Then Jimmie Åkesson comes and takes three apples, but Johan Pehrson nags Åkesson not to take so many, so Åkesson throws back one apple. Johan Pehrson then has eight apples in his basket. But he is a bit ashamed of it, so he tells people that he has received an apple, even though all of us others can see that what has happened is that he has been deprived of two apples. Johan Pehrson has fewer apples left in his basket, not more, for this year's batch of apple sauce.
Mr. Speaker! Another important form of education within the labor market policy is labor market training. We Social Democrats propose in our budget alternative a doubling of the number of places within the labor market training. But in his response, Johan Pehrson does not mention the labor market training at all, which I initially thought was quite remarkable. But then I realized it was quite logical given that the Liberals, in their last budget motion in opposition, proposed that the labor market training should be cut by 829 million kronor in 2024.
Therefore, I think it is high time to ask Johan Pehrson how he views the future of labor market training. Has he changed his opinion on the labor market trainings since 2021, i.e., two years ago? Has anything happened since then at the Ministry of Employment regarding the analysis of this? Or should we now expect that the labor market trainings are next in line for the heavy cuts that Johan Pehrson will continue to drive through in the area of labor market policy?
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Apple sauce, snow sauce and powder sauce - it is a hell of a lot of sauce that is coming here!
The Social Democrats presented a budget as the last thing they did before they were fired by the Swedish people. That included that they would remove the pandemic support. It is well done, anyway, I think. They presented a budget that showed that the pandemic was over. They did not continue with the extra investments in education that had existed during the pandemic. The extra investments were removed, and we lived in the post-pandemic world. I hope that we continue to live there.
When one returns to another policy after the pandemic and has eight apples, which was the original situation, and adds one or two apples, it actually becomes more. I would like Teresa Carvalho to show me the last Social Democratic budget on the large screen here. Then it will become clear that it was nothing, cut off, empty, stopped and a dead end - the pandemic was over, and the investment had run out. I think this was fundamentally good. We have added resources after that.
Then we do not reach full pandemic level. One hopes that the pandemic is gone and that it now stays away.
I also receive questions about the labor market training. It is 93 billion, or what does it say in the budget you have in front of you? These are still substantial resources that we take from the taxpayers' money to help people and reduce the gap that exists. There is an educational shortage and a shortage of knowledge in the Swedish language when it comes to people being able to take the responsibility one is expected to take as an adult and healthy in Sweden, that is to say that one goes and works and is not always so picky.
I have had interpellation debates on labor market training here several times. There is a clear mandate from this government, just as from the previous government, that the activities shall be designed in close cooperation with the business sector in the region to be a way of getting people into a job through a few months or a little longer in labor market training. They have quite a high success rate.
I will reinforce this assignment. We have a new board. Arbetsförmedlingen is expected to focus on the contacts that are so important, so that one receives a labor market education that is close to the demand that exists in a certain region.
I think, therefore, that labor market training is important. I think that more needs to be done from the Arbetsförmedlingen side. I have signaled this in previous interpellation debates. This is also something that we have a sharp and clear ongoing dialogue about with Arbetsförmedlingen.
I return to the point that we must be careful with the citizens' money. The government is clear that we demand efficiency and responsibility. We are hunting for cheating, errors, and fraud in the system. For example, I am pleased that in this tough time – which we shall make as short as possible – we are now introducing establishment jobs after all those years when the Social Democrats did not reach all the way. Now the establishment jobs are in place, and I hope that they will be of great use in a situation of continued difficult economic conditions next year.
Teresa Carvalho (S)
Mr. Speaker! It was not the Social Democrats who cut the adult education places last year, it was Johan Pehrson. It was apparently a sore nerve I stepped on when I reminded of this.
When unemployment rises, measures are needed to secure Swedish jobs and families' finances. But unfortunately, this government has only devoted itself to one thing when it comes to labor policy, and that is cuts.
Johan Pehrson tries to get away with it by describing the cuts as cost efficiencies and even as investments. But a spade is a spade. War is not peace. Cuts are not investments. What Johan Pehrson reinforces is not the work line, but the passivization line.
When you take away both the saw and the hammer from the carpenter, neither walls nor roofs are built. It is the same with the job initiatives. If you deprive Arbetsförmedlingen of the active measures, more people will end up in passivity. Then more people will remain unemployed.
Add to that the fact that the government has forced Arbetsförmedlingen into a slimming-down course which entails fewer employment officers, fewer local offices and poorer conditions to handle all the notices that are now being issued.
Mr. Speaker! Now, unemployment is rising in Sweden. Therefore, I have asked the Minister for Employment what the government is doing. I am then given the answer that one is indeed cutting the budget, and one submits an empty list of bills to the Riksdag so that one can afford to lower the tax on snus and plastic bags. This is not what the minister said, but that is how it is.
This is a terrible prioritization. But, Johan Pehrson, stand for it at least! That is the least one can demand of the country's Minister for Employment.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)
Mr. Speaker! During eight years of Social Democratic government, they did not close 10, not 20, not 30, not 40, not 50 and not 60 of the Arbetsförmedlingen offices, but they closed almost as many offices as possible – all to stay in power. At the same time, they dismantled the foundations of prosperity in the form of a functioning energy supply. Now they wonder why unemployment is increasing.
One must be a bit careful. I do not intend to engage in this shadowboxing, and when it comes to the veil one pulls forward to hide things. We can at any time sit anywhere and have a collective reading: What did the last budget from the Social Democratic government say regarding education? It was said that the pandemic measures would expire. That budget passed, and then the measures expired – and then it was called a reduction, because there had been a change of government. It was about the policy that the Social Democrats themselves campaigned on and implemented, Madam Speaker. I therefore think that one should be a bit careful.
I thank you for the debate. I am glad that there are even higher ambitions for efficiency and responsibility for the taxpayers' money, and I also assume that there is a desire to be clear that the individual also has their own obligations to be and become employable - with support and help from the public sector, because life may have been tougher for others than it has been for me and Teresa Carvalho.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.