Response to interpellation 2025/26:159 on unemployment

Arbetsmarknadsministern Johan Britz (L)

Mr. Speaker! Sofia Amloh has asked me what measures I and the government intend to take to reduce unemployment.

I would, of course, first like to thank you for a very important interpellation.

A job is not only of importance for every person's economy. For most people, the value in a job means contributing to society and having access to social interaction and a context. Unemployment in Sweden is high and has been for many years. Some of the unemployment is assessed to be cyclical, but the high unemployment has primarily structural causes.

A large proportion of the unemployed have limited skills and are far from the labor market. Around 70 percent, or approximately 250,000 people, of those registered with Arbetsförmedlingen belong to one of the groups with weak competitiveness in the labor market who, on average, run a greater risk of longer periods without work. Among these are particularly many who were born outside of Europe and many who have very short education.

The government has taken a number of measures to reduce unemployment. On a general level, an enhanced job tax credit has been introduced, which increases the incentives to move from unemployment to work. In addition, the government is implementing a benefit reform which is expected to contribute to reducing structural unemployment in the long term.

In the area of labor market policy, the unemployment insurance has been reformed so that it becomes a clearer transition insurance that strengthens the work line and reduces the risk of fraud and errors.

In the budget bill for 2026, the government proposes, among other things, that Arbetsförmedlingen receives funds to improve the search activity, matching, and monitoring of job seekers. The supplement also aims to increase the professional and geographical mobility of job seekers and thereby contribute to more people becoming eligible for existing vacancies.

In the area of education policy, the government proposes further investments in vocational training for adults, which includes, among other things, a strengthening and extension of the pilot project with national vocational training until 2028. This also includes an intensified expansion of the university college for professions (yrkeshögskolan).

As my report shows, the government is taking measures against both cyclical and structural unemployment. The government is closely monitoring the developments in the labor market and is prepared to take further measures in the future if the situation requires it.

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

Sofia Amloh (S)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for a few more answers in this debate! We shall see how far they go. Right now, I do not think they go particularly far.

Unemployment has reached new nightmare levels. It is taking hold and reaching new groups. It is 100,000 more who have become unemployed since the government took office. The bankruptcies are record-high and growth is at rock bottom.

Long-term unemployment is sticking, and the National Institute of Economic Research warns that it will get worse because unemployment is not falling in the way it usually does. It is an enormous failure. It cannot be described as anything else. Still, the Minister has no good answers.

Mr. Speaker! Unemployment is not an individual problem. It is a collective societal problem. The socio-economic consequences are enormous, and it is a waste that Sweden cannot afford. It is also completely devastating for the individual. Children get unemployed parents. Young people who want to start their adult lives cannot do so.

I meet and listen to unemployed people and read countless stories with descriptions of how it feels to be repeatedly rejected and get no, and many times not even get to come to a job interview – if there are even any jobs to apply for. Not having a job to go to makes it feel as if one might not be needed and does not get to contribute. Not being able to make good on oneself actually breaks people down, successively.

The idea that people should be punished into work has been effectively dismissed by the Fiscal Policy Council. There is no lack of incentives; that is clearly stated. What is missing is precisely jobs to go to.

Mr. Speaker! That it would pay to live on benefits is a bourgeois myth and has nothing to do with today's reality. It is disrespectful and directly offensive to call unemployed people lazy when the Minister for Employment himself cannot be bothered to lift a finger to reduce unemployment.

Mr. Speaker! I want to inform the Minister for Employment that his job is to get more people to go to work – not fewer. That is what has happened with this government. The government has lost control, and the sense of crisis is far away. There is no plan. They do not even acknowledge that there is a crisis in the labor market. What we Social Democrats demand is that they take their responsibility.

Mr. Speaker! The government's line of work does not break unemployment; it breaks the unemployed. We can never accept that.

(Applause)

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Olle Thorell (S)

Mr. Speaker! I represent Västmanland, a county that has been hit very hard by the mass unemployment in Sweden. In several municipalities, the level is far above the national average, and most alarming of all is the situation in Köping, where youth unemployment is the second highest in the entire country.

Köping has already had to take quite a few hits. The right-wing government in the region, in cooperation with the Sverigedemokraterna, has closed the emergency room there. It is a real death blow for the entire area. And as if that were not enough, another death blow came when GKN Epowertrain, an industrial company that has long been one of Köping's largest employers, is phasing out its operations. Hundreds of people are affected. Those laid off and their families are now sitting at kitchen tables all around the municipality and trying to understand what the future will be filled with. It is an entire local labor market that is reeling. In such a situation, the state should step forward.

It should be clear that it is education that is needed, that people must be given new chances and that the industry needs a partnership with the state, not passivity. Instead, we see a government that hands over the responsibility to the municipalities and hopes that everything will resolve itself. But it does not. It will not resolve itself of its own accord in Köping, Sala, Fagersta, Hallstahammar, Surahammar, Västerås or Kungsör. An active state is needed as a partner to the municipalities.

Arbetsförmedlingen reports that almost 40 percent of the registered unemployed in Västmanland lack a complete upper secondary education. That is significantly more than in the rest of the country. That means, of course, that education should be expanded, not dismantled. Matching must be strengthened, not weakened. It must mean that the state should be more present, not more absent.

The government's line has not met any expectations. There are not enough labor market trainings and transition tools, but rather lower ambitions for the industry's competitiveness and less security for wage earners.

Mr. Speaker! This is a betrayal of Köping, of Västmanland, and of the people who every day try to do right but who stand alone when the jobs are snatched away. What does the government do then? And what do the Liberals, who hold the Minister for Employment position, do? They haven't made a single clear mark. The department first had a Minister for Employment named Johan Pehrson. Then they had another named Persson, and now they have yet another Johan. But regardless of whether it is a Johan, a Persson, or another Johan, unemployment has continued to spiral. Now, 100,000 more people are without work. It is not enough. Sweden needs a new direction.

If – when – we Social Democrats win the election next year, we will do what is required. We will direct sharp interventions so that young people enter the labor market. We will break mass unemployment. We will invest heavily in labor market training. We will ensure that industry hires more, does not move abroad. We will abolish the "karens" (waiting period), which punishes ordinary workers. We will restore the unemployment insurance so that it provides a security worthy of the name. We will never leave Köping or any other municipality in crisis in the lurch when the state is needed.

(Applause)

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Karin Sundin (S)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you, the interpellor, for an important question about what needs to be done to reduce unemployment in Sweden!

I am participating in this debate because I want to give the Minister for Employment a picture from my home county. From Arbetsförmedlingen's statistical perspective, Örebro län has an employment rate that is slightly higher than the national average. In fact, unemployment has decreased slightly in Örebro län, in contrast to the country as a whole, where unemployment is increasing.

It may be Örebro County that the Prime Minister and the Minister for Finance have thought of when they said during the autumn that things are brightening up ahead. If you only see people as statistics, it brightens up a little bit in Örebro County in the Arbetsförmedlingen's statistics on the labor market situation. But it looks different in different municipalities, and there are different types of statistics.

If one looks instead at the number of layoffs, the statistics do not look particularly bright. While the number of layoffs in Sweden as a whole decreased during July, August, and September, we saw, on the other hand, a sharp increase in layoffs in Örebro county. I intend to highlight four examples from the statistics which collectively amount to 300 people who risk becoming or who have already become unemployed.

In Frövi and Rockhammar, 90 people were laid off by Billerud in September.

In Hasselford, half of the workforce, 50 people, were laid off at the sawmill in September.

In Degerfors, 53 people were notified at the steelworks in October.

120 people at Guldsmedshyttan lost their jobs when the mill was recently shut down.

The last casting in Guldsmedshyttan was made on October 27. It became the final point for a history that began with a forge in the 1400s which became a mill after a decision by Gustav Vasa in 1551. I do not know if Minister Britz has been to Guldsmedshyttan, but I believe that he can imagine that the dominant feeling in Guldsmedshyttan now in December is not that it is brightening on the horizon.

Mr. Speaker! We heard the Minister state that a large proportion of the unemployed have limited skills and are far from the labor market and that many were born outside Europe and have short education. That is not true when we talk about those laid off and dismissed in Frövi, Rockhammar, Hasselfors, Degerfors and Guldsmedshyttan. These are people who just recently stood in the middle of the labor market with developed skills for exactly the job they had to perform. Many of them have roots deeply anchored in the region. These are people who have carried the heritage of a Swedish work ethic ever since the time of Gustav Vasa. I think they deserve a better answer to the question of what measures the Minister and the Government intend to take to reduce unemployment.

(Applause)

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Johan Andersson (S)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the answer!

I come from Östergötland County, a county that is doing relatively well. But we also have problems there. We have a lower employment rate than the average. We have higher long-term unemployment than the rest of the country. Even Östergötland has a strike problem, just like in most counties at the current time.

I intend to focus on long-term unemployment. I personally have extensive experience as a municipal councilor and the chairman of the municipal executive board. We have had problems with long-term unemployment from time to time. But I also have experience from the time when we held government power. At that time, we had proposals and took measures to break long-term unemployment. I lack that in the government's policy. It is about investments in education, matching, and various measures.

We had, for example, plusjobb, something that seems to be almost loathsome in the SD-led government. They did, however, represent an opportunity to enter employment through education, especially in the public sector. Combining vocational training and labor market internships with concrete needs was very successful.

What is now visible in the statistics is that the groups of the long-term unemployed and those who lack post-secondary education are increasing. It is these groups that one needs to work with to the highest degree. But instead, the SD government is cutting back on initiatives within the labor market policy and the education policy for these groups.

In our budget motions, we have proposed and pushed for investments with significantly more funds for skills supply and labor market training. These are very low-hanging fruits. Such training provides results quite quickly if one also matches them with the needs that exist in the labor market today.

It feels as though the government has completely capitulated regarding the matching issues linked to what is demanded by the business sector. This concerns primarily the possibility for those who have stood outside the labor market for a while. The risk is that the number of registered long-term unemployed will increase even further because there is a lack of much policy to achieve impact.

My question to the Minister is: What policy, or even anything at all, does the Minister have to offer in terms of, above all, skills supply and education? The Minister has given some answers, but it is far from sufficient given the way the situation looks.

(Applause)

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Johanna Haraldsson (S)

Mr. Speaker! Unemployment stands at 9 percent. Sweden today has the EU's third highest unemployment. Over half a million people lack a job to go to. It has increased by 100,000 since this government took office. It did not have to be like this. If Sweden had only followed the same development as the rest of Europe, 70,000 more people would have been in work. But the government does not do what is required. They have no sense of crisis. They cut back. They wait. They hope. They are completely passive while unemployment bites its teeth in.

With the right's budget policy, the resources for active labor market policy have been halved, i.e., all the measures needed for people to be able to get jobs, training, coaching, subsidized employment, labor market training, and other support measures.

At the same time as there is mass unemployment, the government plans to continue cutting. This is strange when such a large proportion stands so far away from the labor market or, as the minister says, has weak competitiveness. In that case, one should absolutely not continue with its savings line but instead ensure to invest in these individuals so that they can get into jobs. It can cost a bit more when people stand so far away from the labor market. I believe the minister understands that too.

I live in Vetlanda in Jönköping County, a county that for a long time has been one of Sweden's strongest industrial and export counties. It is a county where people have always worked their way through crises. We have high employment and low unemployment. But during this unemployment crisis, Jönköping County has also experienced increased unemployment.

The construction crisis hits particularly hard in Småland and Jönköping County, which is one of Sweden's most important areas for the timber industry and small house manufacturing. A large majority of the country's timber house production is located there. But today, every fourth job in the timber industry is gone. So few small houses have been built like this in over 100 years, and the construction rate is the lowest in 30 years.

The construction crisis has forced long-established small house manufacturers to shut down, with devastating consequences for smaller towns in the countryside. Nevertheless, the government has not presented any policy to get construction started, in order to save the jobs that existed and exist in Jönköping County. The request from the industry to open for short-term support for the timber industry has been refused. The consequence is clear: functioning companies are being wiped out, competence is disappearing, and the jobs risk not coming back.

It is not only construction workers who are affected. Unemployment has increased in several groups: among the elderly, among academics, and among young people, who previously established themselves relatively quickly in the labor market, not least within the industry.

Mr. Speaker! Unemployment is not just a figure. It is something that risks breaking families, dreams, and lives. It is about young people who do not enter the labor market and instead have to start their adult lives in unemployment, and older people who have to end their professional lives prematurely. It is a waste of people's strength, knowledge, and experience. I truly hope that the Minister has some new announcements to give regarding what the government can imagine taking measures to tackle unemployment.

(Applause)

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Arber Gashi (S)

Mr. Speaker! The Minister just wished a pleasant weekend. We will be going on weekend in a little while, but there are very many out there who are working today and who have not yet taken a weekend. But far too many are also those who do not have a job to go to today, where they can wish their colleagues a pleasant weekend after a long and intensive work week. That is what I want to talk a little bit about now.

I sit in the Social Insurance Committee and am accustomed to debating with the minister's colleague Anna Tenje. When I speak about how we should combat child poverty and create better conditions, especially for single parents in our country, she often returns to this matter of the work principle. I thought it was appropriate to now debate this issue with the Minister for Employment, who should be the one standing at the forefront and representing the work principle. I am very curious. What measures does it contain? What are the proposals? Where are the bills? Or does the work principle only consist of making life worse for those who already have it tough?

I genuinely wonder what the Minister for Employment does during the day, when half a million people are unemployed in Sweden. What does a workday look like? When does he start work? Who does he talk to? Who does he meet? I am genuinely interested. To practically not put forward any other proposals than to lower the unemployment insurance for all those who have now been drawn into the Tidö government's unemployment is astonishing. There is no work line at the Ministry of Employment. It is an unemployment line that they are pushing forward with.

In my Halland, which generally has a lower unemployment rate than the national average, unemployment has also clearly increased, in virtually all municipalities.

When I debated the issue with the former Minister for Employment, I could get answers such as "Yes, if you are laid off now, for example at the paper mill in Hylte, I recommend that you move to another municipality." But the measures continue to be as if they have vanished without a trace.

I am very curious, Minister for Employment. Tell us what it is you are doing!

(Applause)

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Jytte Guteland (S)

Mr. Speaker! Thank you to the Minister! But above all, thank you to our interpellator, who has raised the important question of unemployment here today.

We have the third highest unemployment in the EU. We have half a million Swedes who are unemployed and do not have a job to go to. At the same time as other countries in Europe succeed in reversing the development, more and more people in Sweden are affected by unemployment. If Sweden's development had followed the European one, approximately 70,000 more Swedes would have had a job to go to. Youth unemployment is sky-high.

This is not about numbers. It is about people of flesh and blood, who are going to have to pay bills and pay for their children's winter clothes and who want to be able to afford Christmas presents for their loved ones, not least for their children.

It is people who wonder if they are wanted. First, it is one no, and then it is two and three. Perhaps some self-esteem remains somewhere. But then it is about ten nos, and then it starts to become difficult. Fifty nos eat away at the psyche, and self-esteem is damaged. Still, it is not an individual's fault. It is about a societal problem, collective problems – the government's problems.

Arbetsförmedlingens report on the labor market situation for quarter 2 shows that unemployment is now also affecting us in Stockholm County. More and more people need to register with Arbetsförmedlingen. In Stockholm County, it was actually significantly more than in other places who were forced to register during the second quarter. It was an increase of 8 percent, compared to the national average of 5 percent. It might not be so strange, because here the economic wheels also turn faster when they go in the wrong direction.

Unemployment functions like an influenza. Every company that shuts down operations results in more unemployed people who in turn reduce their consumption, which in turn forces more companies to reduce their operations – and so it continues. More and more people become unemployed. The vaccine against this type of crisis, which the Tidöregeringen is now only reinforcing, is therefore instead positive investments that create confidence in the future.

We Social Democrats want to do this. We want to invest more in skills supply and labor market training. We have that in our budget. We want to invest more in that which also creates more jobs for all of Sweden – a strategy for our industry. We want to invest in, for example, the green transition, which we know provides more jobs and where Sweden has advantages. We Social Democrats want an ambitious climate policy. We want to be at the forefront when it comes to the modern jobs, digitalization, and that which we know will be advantages for the countries that invest. We also give significantly more to Industriklivet.

In short: We have a plan for how to combat unemployment. Conservative governments never do. I was the national chair of SSU when the Reinfeldt government was in power. At that time, the world was hit by the financial crisis. But the Swedish government stood very passive. We also got a record-high youth unemployment then. The then labor market minister expressed it as that we had shitty years to expect. That was roughly the stance he had at the Ministry of Employment. We said: Politics must never have that passive attitude when people are hit by unemployment. We must invest in what gives hope for the future and what creates jobs. And we must give a young generation the chance to start their adult lives with work.

(Applause)

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Arbetsmarknadsministern Johan Britz (L)

Madam Speaker! Thank you again, members, for this discussion!

Step by step, the government is now implementing the plan to break unemployment, both structural and cyclical. The plan consists of three parts.

Firstly, there must be education that leads to jobs. This is about vocational training, not least. We are now investing in 11,000 more training places. It is also about education in the Swedish language. The Swedish unemployment is large. Approximately half of the unemployed are foreign-born. Of those who are long-term unemployed, almost two-thirds are foreign-born.

Language is the key. Language is what determines both whether one can pursue further education and whether one can succeed in the Swedish labor market.

Secondly, we see to it that it always pays off better to work than to live on benefits. We also ensure that we lower the tax for those who work so that one gets more money in the wallet and dares to consume, and in that way breaks the recession we find ourselves in and also gets strong incentives to take that extra shift.

Thirdly, we must have a tight asylum immigration. I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that we now invest the resources Sweden has in helping those people who today stand far from the labor market, not least those born abroad. This means that one cannot increase asylum immigration. It would complicate the task we have before us. It would mean that more people would be affected by long-term unemployment.

Opposing the government's policy are, among others, the Social Democrats, who are investing less in breaking the recession. They want to make it more expensive to employ young people. They want to make it more profitable to live on benefits, especially over long periods, so that people get stuck in a passivizing benefit dependency. They want to increase asylum migration and say no to benefit ceilings. They want higher taxes on labor.

It is crystal clear to me which alternative in Sweden has a work line and a policy to get more people into work and fewer unemployed.

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Sofia Amloh (S)

Madam Speaker! It still echoes very empty in the government's barrels. We can all observe – it is difficult for the government to avoid it – that more people are becoming unemployed for every year that passes with this government.

As I said in my first post, the Minister for Employment should ensure that more people go to work, not fewer. That is somewhat of a Minister for Employment's function. But that is not the occupation the Ministry of Employment has right now. There are no proposals on our tables. Or yes, a proposal has come in to worsen the unemployment insurance for those who are now becoming unemployed. This is apparently what the Minister for Employment does and what they are doing at the ministry.

Shouldn't there be fewer people going into unemployment and more going to work? Isn't it the Minister for Employment's task to ensure that? In that case, it is a failure, because there will be 100,000 more unemployed with the SD government. I think that is receipt enough. We know what the government is capable of.

The last time bourgeois politicians held government power, with Reinfeldt talking about the work line, unemployment increased. Now, one continues in the same rut with a work line that leads to unemployment and to people becoming poorer.

If people become poorer and find things really damn tough – excuse the language, Madam Speaker – it will therefore mean there will be more jobs to apply for at Arbetsförmedlingen. It is a logic that we have never really understood. The Minister for Employment is welcome to explain to us Social Democrats how there will be more jobs to apply for when people become poorer.

We believe in growth policy. We believe that if we invest in people – if people are given the opportunity to take a job and if we ensure that more companies become better, grow and thrive – then more people will also get jobs.

Madam Speaker! When the Minister is asked questions by Svenska Dagbladet about the increased unemployment among academics – it has become 30 percent higher, and the group of academics is growing rapidly among those registered with Arbetsförmedlingen – he falters. Then the toughness disappears. Then he knows that it is quite difficult to be unemployed. That is seen when one reads the answers. Then it is not a matter of them picking berries in northern Sweden or that it is just a matter of laziness. Then one understands that it is tough to be unemployed.

This, Madam Speaker and everyone listening to the debate, is nothing other than pure class contempt from Sweden's Minister for Employment! It cannot be more obvious that this is not a task for the Liberals or this government. Combating unemployment is about creating more paths and opportunities. It is about not abandoning people who want to do right by themselves. One must want to see that more can go to work. To ignore mass unemployment is a huge betrayal of Sweden and everyone who is currently unemployed.

(Applause)

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Karin Sundin (S)

Madam Speaker! The Minister for Employment has described in the debate here today that a large proportion of the unemployed have limited skills and are far from the labor market. They have weak competitiveness. Many are born outside of Europe. They have short education.

Then the follow-up questions are obvious: How are the unemployed to be able to develop their skills? How are they to get closer to the labor market? How are they to strengthen their competitiveness? And how are they to build upon their education? How are they to be able to build upon the language, if that is what is lacking when they are born outside of Europe? The Minister for Employment has not much to say about that. Instead, he speaks of immigrants as a problem.

He speaks of more money, more tax deductions for those who have jobs, to increase the incentives to move from unemployment to work. But job tax credits are a really poor answer to those who have just lost their jobs in Guldsmedshyttan. The government's benefit reform is an even worse answer to those at the steelworks in Degerfors who are currently worried about the future. A worse unemployment insurance is a truly miserable way to strengthen the work line.

No new jobs will be created in Hasselfors, in Frövi, or anywhere else because the Tidöre government is cutting the unemployment insurance. It will only mean less money in the wallet for the person who becomes unemployed.

Madam Speaker! Sweden needs a policy so that people can keep their jobs and so that more people can get a job in Sweden. Sweden does not need a policy that blames and punishes those who have become unemployed.

(Applause)

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Johanna Haraldsson (S)

Madam Speaker! From the Minister's answer, it becomes clear to everyone what the government's medicine against unemployment is: a worse unemployment insurance and a benefit ceiling. Both are based on an idea that people who are unemployed do not want to work and that they just need to be whipped harder. Only by becoming a little poorer will they get a job.

This is both incorrect and disrespectful towards hundreds of thousands of people who are unemployed. Industrial and construction workers who have been laid off, newly graduated academics and vocational trainees who do not get their first job, people who lack the right skills and repeatedly get rejected do not need poverty. They need support, education and real jobs.

The earned income tax credit has been tested time and again. Yet the right continues with something resembling a fool's persistence to claim that tax cuts automatically lead to more jobs. But reality shows something completely different. We have seen earned income tax credit on earned income tax credit, and yet unemployment increases.

At the same time, no policy is presented to get housing construction started, no policy for new industrial establishments, and no policy for new jobs. On the contrary, the government is abolishing state credit guarantees that have contributed to investments in Swedish industry and new employment opportunities.

Madam Speaker! The Minister for Employment says in his response that he is monitoring the situation closely and that the government is prepared to take measures if the situation requires it. But if mass unemployment does not get the government to act, what is it then that is required? How high does unemployment need to be before the government presents any new proposals that actually push it back?

(Applause)

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Arber Gashi (S)

Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister, for the clarity! I finally found out what the work line consists of.

It was a bit short on education at the beginning; it was his first priority. It is strange that one brings that up as Minister for Employment, I think. We have 500,000 unemployed and just over 6,000 people who are taking an employment training program.

Besides that, it was words and messages about making people just a little poorer. If they just get it a little tougher, they will want to take a job.

The problem is that reality is the government's worst enemy. The government's party has held the position of Minister for Employment for nearly four years. During that time, 100,000 more people have become unemployed. The Minister for Employment may be relatively new to the job. But you have had the responsibility for a very long time now, and the result is very clear: unemployment has deepened and worsened.

During the time we have been debating here, classes of young people have entered and left the gallery. Many of them will soon enter youth unemployment, as Sweden also tops the statistics in comparisons within the EU.

Where is the housing construction? Where are the initiatives for it? And since we are talking a bit about young people anyway, why does the Minister for Employment refuse to invest in that young people registered at Arbetsförmedlingen can get a driver's license so that they can take the jobs that exist?

The answer is no, no, no to everything. The problem is that there are no other answers. There are no other proposals. Instead, it is about making people a little poorer. The voters should know about this now when we are soon going to an election.

(Applause)

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Jytte Guteland (S)

Madam Speaker! Thank you to the Minister for Employment for the debate!

The Minister for Employment has answered somewhat vaguely on this interpellation and in the interpellation debate, somewhat vaguely about worse unemployment insurance and contribution ceilings and that those who do not have jobs do not want jobs. They should be poorer, because then they would become motivated.

Tidö, the Alliance, and the right have always thought so. The rich work more if they get more money; the poor work more if they get less money. There is no logic. There is also no evidence. On the contrary, bourgeois governments have always failed with the issue of unemployment.

The last time we had a bourgeois government, I was myself chairman of SSU. I remember the enormous and biting unemployment then, which hit the young generation in particular very hard. Now we see it being repeated, and it is because bourgeois governments do not want to use labor market policy. They do not want to invest in future industries, and they are completely uninterested in distribution policy.

All these three parts are what we Social Democrats consider to be most important in tough times.

It is very important, especially during a recession, when it is most difficult, to invest forward and invest in the industries that have the future ahead of them. Now, in the time we live in, it is the companies that have ideas and investments for the green, climate-friendly future.

One also needs to educate those who are to get the jobs that are at the forefront. It is about a strong education policy with good labor market training.

Last but not least, we have the distribution policy. Here, the Tidögänget have once again got it completely backwards. It is those who have less money who consume more when times are tough if they get more in their wallets, and you have worsened things for them with the lowest incomes and invested the most in them. It is unfair, and it is bad when it comes to unemployment.

(Applause)

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Arbetsmarknadsministern Johan Britz (L)

Madam Speaker! I am still waiting to receive an answer to my question, which is genuine: Why are the Social Democrats investing less than the government in breaking the recession? The recession is a component of the unemployment that we are now seeing.

Let me comment on what has been said regarding the unemployment insurance and the reform that this government has implemented.

On 1 October, the new regulatory framework for the unemployment insurance entered into force. That reform strengthens the work line. It increases the incentives for the unemployed to seek and take jobs. All research shows that it is those who seek jobs who find jobs.

Our line is clear: The unemployment insurance shall be a transition insurance that provides financial support between jobs. It shall not be a long-term livelihood. If the unemployment insurance functions as a long-term livelihood, unemployment will be higher.

We have also made the insurance more generous, so to speak. We have ensured that more people are covered by the unemployment insurance. We have ensured that it is easier to manage the unemployment insurance for the individual but also for companies and other employers, who previously have had to devote a large part of their administration to reporting how much one has worked. We have also raised the ceiling in the unemployment insurance so that it functions as a security between jobs but does not function as a long-term livelihood.

This is good politics. This is part of lowering unemployment. It is part of strengthening the work line in Sweden.

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Sofia Amloh (S)

Madam Speaker! I began this important debate by saying that there is no sense of crisis in this government, a sense of crisis regarding the very serious situation with mass unemployment in the labor market, and it has become incredibly clear in this debate.

The Minister stands here in the chamber, Madam Speaker, and says that the government's measures are working well. These people will have it tougher and tougher; then they will get jobs. There will not be any more proposals from the Ministry of Employment regarding measures on the labor market in these matters. It is clear that one thinks that the unemployment insurance and the rule changes are working well.

Then I wonder, Madam Speaker, where the Minister for Employment is located. It must be somewhere where no stories about reality reach him at all, because it becomes incredibly clear if one goes out and looks and listens to how it actually looks.

Madam Speaker! This is an enormous failure. It can be nothing else, and we must be incredibly clear about that. There are so many people out there who want nothing more than to have a job or are threatened with losing their work.

There is not a single government or labor market minister in Sweden who intends to take this seriously. They are just going to follow the question, and I think that is extremely unfortunate. We need to replace this government.

(Applause)

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Arbetsmarknadsministern Johan Britz (L)

Madam Speaker! I thank you for this discussion and debate! We are talking about very serious matters.

To be long-term unemployed in Sweden, according to Arbetsförmedlingen's definition, one must have been unemployed for twelve months. Twelve months is quite a long time. Soon it is Christmas, and then you are unemployed. A spring comes. The greenery arrives, and you have no colleagues. It becomes summer, and you have no vacation. An autumn comes with darkness and rain and without any salary – and then it becomes Christmas again.

Unemployment is not just an economic problem, but it can be directly life-threatening. The Public Health Agency points out that unemployment is a clear risk factor for mental ill-health and suicide. A knowledge overview that the Commission for Equal Health has conducted also shows a connection between unemployment and cardiovascular diseases, increased risk for risky behavior and alcohol abuse. It also leads to mental health issues.

The longer unemployment lasts, the clearer the mental health issues become. Therefore, we must break the recession and tackle structural unemployment. Unemployed people should be unemployed for a short period. That is the absolute most important thing.

I regret that the Social Democrats are presenting a policy that does not invest enough to break the recession. I regret that the Social Democrats stand for a policy that would likely result in more long-term unemployed. But this is an important debate. Thank you for it!

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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