Response to interpellation 2024/25:184 on the increasing unemployment among young people
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerns the increasing youth unemployment and how it should be combated. L considers job guarantees, investments in vocational colleges and yrkesvux to be important measures 1. L argues that high-quality education is the most important measure 1, that the government is investing in education 1 and that vocational training is prioritized to meet skill shortages 2. L also considers it reasonable to raise the requirements for benefit recipients 2. S considers that Sweden needs a strong labor market policy where Arbetsförmedlingen is the key 3. S argues that the government is making cuts to Arbetsförmedlingen 3, that the resources for the education sector are insufficient 4 and that the state is giving walkover 4. S considers that society has a responsibility to offer support functions 5 and that high youth unemployment is a structural deficiency that can lead to crime 6. S argues that they would have made other priorities if they were in power 4 and votes no to certain deteriorations of the a-kassan 5.
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 Mats Persson (L)
Mr. Speaker! Jonathan Svensson has asked me what measures I intend to take to reverse the development when it comes to the rising youth unemployment.
The increased unemployment is judged to reduce young people's opportunities to find work. Young people aged 16-24 who have been unemployed and registered with Arbetsförmedlingen for at least three months can today be offered a place through the job guarantee for youth. Within the program, different types of interventions and support are offered, for example, internships, work training, study and vocational guidance, and labor market training.
Mr. Speaker! The single most important contribution for young people to be able to establish themselves on the labor market in the long term is, however, education. High-quality education also strengthens individuals' opportunities to establish themselves on the labor market and makes it possible to take advantage of everyone's competence.
The investments made in multiple places both within the vocational higher education and the vocational adult education improve access to education so that more people can quickly enter employment.
In the budget bill for 2025, the government proposes an additional 900 million kronor, including student support, for approximately 11,000 new places within regional vocational adult education within komvux, so-called yrkesvux. Furthermore, the grant to mentors in lärlingsvux is doubled. The investments are crucial both for Sweden's competitiveness and for the individuals who get better opportunities to enter employment.
Jonathan Svensson (S)
Mr. Speaker! I thank the Minister for taking the time to come to the chamber to discuss this pressing issue.
It is clear that Sweden is in a recession, with all the effects that it brings with it. It is about an increased number of layoffs, a poorer employment development, but above all an increased unemployment that spreads across all social classes in our entire country.
We in this chamber are relatively in agreement that everyone who can work should work. That everyone who can work actually also works is completely central both for the individual's livelihood and for our common society's possibility to have a welfare that adds up. It was therefore that I on Tuesday with some horror read the Arbetsförmedlingen's latest released report regarding the situation on the labor market and the outlook for the next two years. In that report, it appeared with all clarity that we have a high unemployment and particularly a very high youth unemployment. It has increased sharply during both 2023 and 2024. From all appearances, it looks like it will continue to increase during 2025.
At the end of November this year, over 45,000 young people were registered as unemployed at Arbetsförmedlingen. It is an alarming figure. Young people are a particularly vulnerable and cyclical-sensitive group in the labor market. It is in practice always the group that has to take the first and largest hit when the economy goes downward and the labor market becomes increasingly weaker.
I am convinced that the Minister understands that this is not a sustainable situation for all the young people who are without a job. We are talking about a relatively large group of people. One may have recently received their first job but is now losing it, perhaps before one is qualified for AKASSA. It is also about young people who now fail to take the first step into working life and thus risk falling into long-term exclusion, with all the consequences that entails for both the individual and society.
Madam Speaker! In the response that the Minister has just accounted for here in the rostrum, it is possible to discern two main parts. One concerns the importance of us having an education of high quality. I agree with that. The other part concerns the measures that Arbetsförmedlingen has in its toolbox. I think that we can discuss that a bit.
We Social Democrats believe that Sweden needs to have a strong and active labor market policy throughout the country to tackle youth unemployment. The key to the active labor market policy is the expert agency: Arbetsförmedlingen. But in the current situation, there are major problems at the agency, and it is not managing to deliver in all parts of its mandate.
It is obvious that the authority is unable to deliver fully, much thanks to the large cuts that the government and Mats Persson have implemented at the authority. Only this year, large groups have been laid off from the authority. When one is forced into layoffs and cuts, it is given that the availability becomes worse, that the local presence becomes worse, and that one gets a worse opportunity to handle the issues that we are discussing in today's interpellation debate.
How can the government justify massive cuts in labor market policy and at Arbetsförmedlingen at the same time as tens of thousands of young people go unemployed every day?
Adrian Magnusson (S)
Madam Speaker! The Minister for Finance almost challenged me to debate with a person from Lund. I thought, therefore, that I could not abstain. No, but I shall get to the actual issue.
As Member Svensson just said, we have a high unemployment rate in Sweden generally. We also have a very high youth unemployment, one of the highest in all of Europe. I believe the Minister for Employment agrees that it is very worrying.
It is always very concerning when major societal problems affect young people to such a great extent as unemployment does now. There are plenty of examples of young people who unfortunately end up on the wrong track early in life and then spend the rest of their lives in crime or other behavior harmful to society and the individual. If one were to do a historical overview, I believe one would find that a major cause of precisely crime throughout history has been unemployment. One of the major structural deficiencies that can cause a society to have very large problems is precisely unemployment.
I believe we could stand here for hours and have a seminar exercise on the value of work. Work has a value for society as a whole but also for the individual. There is something special about feeling that one contributes to a society, that one does good and that one is important. It also does something for a person to set the alarm in the morning and know that today one shall contribute to the development of society.
That is why the good work is extremely important, and that is why it is extremely important that we have several different measures to combat youth unemployment in Sweden - of course also in other parts of the world, but we are in the Swedish Riksdag, so obviously this is about Sweden.
I must say that I think the Minister for Employment provides some good measures in his response. I still feel secure. Sometimes, unfortunately, one hears certain liberal proponents—by that I mean liberal in the broad sense, not the Liberal Party—who advocate for a view along the lines that politicians cannot create jobs, but that it is something the market should handle. It is a bit like that the invisible hand should ensure that work is created.
Just as Member Svensson stated, I am completely convinced that Sweden needs an active labor market policy and a broad palette of measures to ensure that young people in this country get jobs and do not get stuck in crime and exclusion or, as I said before, other socially and individually harmful behavior.
I want to ask the Minister for Employment if there are further measures in this toolbox that the Minister for Employment can imagine taking either today or further ahead. We still need to be prepared to take many measures to address youth unemployment and conduct a very active labor market policy.
If we get a social development where youth unemployment sticks at an even higher level than now, then we, or perhaps rather our successors, will stand here and have even greater problems than we have today with where society is headed.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! I would like to thank the interpellator and the member for your questions and debate contributions.
It is welcome that we can have a debate in the chamber where we do not blame each other for being evil or where one side is to be the good and the other the evil. We want, in many ways, the same thing, that is to get a society where people work. Then we have different tools and different ideological starting points to get there. But let us have respect for the fact that we think differently.
To begin with, I want to emphasize that Sweden is a country to be proud of. We have very high employment. We are a country where we do not have housewives. Women in Sweden work to a large extent, which means that we have a fundamentally well-functioning labor market.
Right now, we are in a challenging situation because the economy is sluggish. When this government took office, we inherited an inflation of 10 percent, which meant that the Riksbank and many other central banks had to raise interest rates. This has cast a damp blanket over households. Consequently, employment has declined and unemployment has increased.
This is noticeable, in particular, by the fact that it becomes harder for young people to get a foot in the door for their first job when there is a recession and companies are not hiring.
The most important thing in this situation is to ensure that the economic wheels turn faster and that companies hire. We need to ensure that there is a sense of future optimism and economic opportunities for all our small business owners and large companies across our elongated country to hire people, not least young people and not least in those industries that have traditionally offered many entry-level jobs for young people. I am thinking of hotels and restaurants and trade, to take two examples that have been very affected by the economic situation and the high interest rates.
Now we see that interest rates are falling back. The Riksbank announced as recently as today that they are lowering the repo rate once more.
Together with this, the government and the fiscal policy are making major efforts regarding investing in education. Next year, we have 120,000 places in vocational training that lead to real jobs. There are great opportunities for those who want and need to educate themselves to do so next year. They have rarely been greater.
Madam Speaker! It is also important that we have high expectations of people, regardless of whether one is young or old. Our social contract is based on the idea that those who can support themselves do so. And those who finance the welfare society by going to work every day should feel that those who do not work are doing their utmost to actually take a job, seek work, and attend training. Society should be characterized by high expectations of our fellow human beings, not least of the unemployed.
If I may make a small point, it is still important to say that this government believes that we need to have an active policy that provides opportunities to undergo education. We believe in education. It is important for the individual, and it is important for society. We believe that it is the most important way forward. This image, which people have tried to create, that we do not have high ambitions in that area is completely wrong. It is precisely the opposite.
Jonathan Svensson (S)
Madam Speaker! I thank the Minister for the answer!
I completely agree that there is much to be proud of regarding the Swedish labor market and how we have it in Sweden, but at the same time, there is also very much that we need to work on. It is precisely for that reason that we are discussing this issue here today.
In his answer, the Minister mentioned the fight against inflation. It is very positive that we have brought down inflation to significantly lower levels than it was just a year ago. However, that does not mean the government can take a walkover in other policy areas. One must be able to hold two thoughts in one's head at the same time.
In addition to the toolbox that Arbetsförmedlingen has, the Minister raised the education sector. I completely agree with the Minister; I also believe in education. I believe everyone in the chamber does. If we in Sweden had had an education system that was capable of equipping all young people with the tools needed in the labor market, we would have been able to both combat youth unemployment and fill many of the skills shortages that exist in various sectors of the Swedish labor market.
There is a relatively large problem with what the Minister states regarding the need for good education. If one is to have credibility in what one says, one must also be able to point out that one is adding resources to the education sector. If one calls it the single most important measure to combat youth unemployment, one must add resources to it in a reasonable way.
Right now, it is enough to open any local newspaper from any location to read about cuts in schools and within higher education. Childcare workers are being laid off, and teachers and social pedagogues are being told to leave. In many places, they have even started laying off permanent staff. It is not only primary schools that are taking a hit. At many educational institutions – both colleges and universities – it is very difficult to make the finances work, and that will have consequences.
Madam Speaker! We have a situation in Sweden with skyrocketing unemployment, including youth unemployment, with all the consequences that it entails. We have the highest unemployment in ten years, with the exception of the pandemic. In such a situation, one could imagine that the public sector would rally and take a major responsibility to reverse the development. The problem is only that the government's response to the crisis is to not provide enough resources to the education sector while simultaneously making large cuts within the job policy.
The Ministry of Employment is also failing to present any bills. During this parliamentary term, only one major bill has essentially been delivered, and it largely concerned deteriorations in the unemployment insurance. Beyond that, only minor bills and letters have been submitted. When the state takes a walkover in labor market policy, ordinary people take the hit, especially young people who do not receive the measures they would have needed to be able to take a job.
Madam Speaker! It is obvious that we Social Democrats are not entirely satisfied with the current order and the work the government is doing. If we had been in government, we would have made completely different political priorities.
I do not feel that the Minister, in his previous statement, really answers my question on how one justifies large cuts in labor market policy and at Arbetsförmedlingen while tens of thousands of young people are without work. I therefore give the Minister once again the opportunity to answer the question.
Adrian Magnusson (S)
Madam Speaker! I want to make a few points regarding what the Minister for Employment said. When I listened, I thought that I can sometimes understand the points of contact that exist between liberalism and socialism. When the Minister for Employment spoke, I felt that there are still points of contact that one sometimes perhaps forgets.
The Minister for Employment may not have expressed himself in a way that I would have, but as we have said, we have different ideological starting points. He spoke, in any case, about duty and right. I share the view that there is a duty to work. Everyone who can work shall work. But there is also a right. People should be able to expect that society tries to create work and equip people for work. That was somewhat what Member Svensson was getting at. People should really be able to feel that society is there for them and that one is equipped to take the jobs that exist. In Sweden, we now have high unemployment and high youth unemployment, but in many areas also a great skills shortage, which is concerning.
I also think it is good if we do not portray each other as evil. We may have different views on how high the unemployment should be in an ideal society, but I believe we agree that youth unemployment in particular should not be at such high levels. I experience and believe that we agree that youth unemployment must fall, and significantly, from today's levels. But as said, we may have different views on what is an ideal unemployment level.
In conclusion, I can agree with Member Svensson that if one truly wanted to show that one has high ambitions and takes the issue seriously, the Ministry of Employment could have presented more bills to the Committee on Employment. But it can be understood that there may also be somewhat different ideological views and starting points there.
I appreciate the debate. We shall see if the minister and I can maintain a good tone throughout the debate.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! Let me be clear: The Government is making no cuts within the job policy. On the other hand, we have a different principled view, or at least a different perception of reality, on what kinds of education we want to invest in. We have a very large focus on vocational training that leads to real jobs and which is aimed at those industries and sectors that today experience that it is extremely difficult to find competent labor. We ensure that people are educated for exactly these sectors and industries.
Since the government wants to invest in vocational training, it means that we have chosen to reduce the volumes within other types of labor market training. I am not ashamed of this prioritization, but think it is completely reasonable in a situation where welfare and the green transition have great needs and where certain companies are crying out for competence and have done so for very many years. The entire starting point that one can learn on the job or attend a training completely or partially at a workplace, learn the social codes, and above all learn the craft is incredibly important to me.
Madam Speaker! I do not think the Social Democrats have a problem with that too few political proposals are being submitted. When I see the Social Democrats' actions, I interpret it as that they simply do not like the proposals that the government puts forward.
When the government presents proposals for a new unemployment insurance fund that tightens the requirements for the unemployed, because the social contract is based on that, the Social Democrats vote no. When we vote for the work line by lowering taxes for everyone who works, the Social Democrats vote no. When we want to raise the requirements for benefit recipients, the Social Democrats vote no. My analysis is that it is not the activity or the government that the Social Democrats have a problem with, but rather that they simply do not agree with the proposals that we put forward - fair enough!
We come from different ideological backgrounds and have different views on how we want society to be. We have different visions. I have no problem with that. But let us be honest about your problem picture: You want a different political direction and have voted against the proposals concerning imposing stricter requirements on people, having a requirement-based job policy, and having a policy where it pays off better to work than to live on benefits.
Jonathan Svensson (S)
Madam Speaker! The Minister is speaking about a requirement-based labor policy. I believe we are relatively in agreement that requirements must, of course, be placed on the individual. But society also has a responsibility to ensure that there are such support functions as are needed for people to be able to take a job. That Arbetsförmedlingen has been hit by such severe cuts as those seen in recent years undermines that entire part. Society provides no support for the needs that exist.
Yes, we vote no to certain deteriorations of the unemployment benefit, because we do not believe in them. We do not believe that people take a job just because they receive worse compensation from the unemployment benefit. We definitely do not believe that.
Today we have discussed an issue that affects very many in our country. Over 45,000 young people have no job to go to every day. If we from a political standpoint do not manage to present solutions that address the problems, it could cost society something unimaginable in the long run.
Based on the answers that the Minister has provided here today, I can unfortunately conclude that I assess that we have a government that is not capable of handling these social problems. I think that is highly regrettable. Sweden's young people would have deserved an active and well-functioning labor market policy that exists throughout the country and equips them with the tools they need.
In the midst of a recession with record warnings, bankruptcies, and skyrocketing youth unemployment, we instead get the government's policy, which gives way in labor market policy with massive cuts and an inability of the Ministry of Employment to even succeed in presenting a single proper bill that tackles these problems. In this way, one also gives way when it comes to the 45,000 young people who today stand without work. The grade for the government is clearly failing. I know that Sweden can do so much more.
Madam Speaker! From everything to judge by, it unfortunately seems to be the case that it is the line of passivity that applies at the Ministry of Employment and Labour and not the line of work.
Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Mats Persson (L)
Madam Speaker! I thank Jonathan Svensson for the interpellation and for a productive and welcome debate.
Sweden is a fantastic country. Our society is built on rights and responsibilities. It is built on opportunities but also on doing one's duty.
There are few countries in the world where you can get a first chance, a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance, and a fifth chance in school or in the education system to test different educations and different professions. As a rule, you do not pay anything in Sweden. Society pays for the education. There are few countries in the world where you have such great opportunities to test yourself, fail, and get educated throughout your entire life. Furthermore, the taxpayers pay for the feast. These are fantastic opportunities.
But one also has obligations. It is this heritage in the Social Democratic Workers' Party that has eroded and no longer remains. It is with sadness that I note that the Social Democratic Workers' Party has become a contribution party. Every time this bourgeois government puts forward proposals to have higher expectations of the Swedish people and our fellow human beings, the Social Democrats vote no.
Is it reasonable to live on benefits year after year without providing a counter-performance? Is it reasonable that in Sweden in 2024 we can have people who year after year are supported by other people in society and do nothing to receive that benefit? I do not think so. Therefore, the government is now changing the benefit policy we have had in Sweden for far too many years. It is not a day too soon.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.