Response to interpellations 2022/23:186 and 191 on green transition, social sustainability and skills supply

Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)

Madam Speaker! Zara Leghissa has asked the Minister for Equality and Assistant Minister for Employment if she will act to make working life in the green transition socially sustainable. The interpellation has been handed over to me. Additionally, Linus Sköld has asked me how I intend to act so that the labor supply is matched against the needs of the business sector in the green transition.

It is of great importance that all people in Sweden have a working life with secure working and employment conditions, which naturally also applies to the green transition. The work against labor-related crime is an important part of providing employees with security in the working life.

The offensive against crime in the working life here on the Swedish home front continues. The funding for Arbetsmiljöverket for the work against crime in the working life remains at the same level as during 2022, and the joint agency work that is currently being carried out between nine agencies will continue to be developed so that cooperation becomes even more effective.

During 2023, an additional five new regional centers against labor market crime will open across the country. Labor market crime leads to the exploitation of vulnerable people, to distorted competition, and to the risk that public funds go to criminals. More regional centers against labor market crime are an important tool to counter this. The Government has also identified the work against fraud and incorrect payments as a priority area for Arbetsförmedlingen during 2023.

The work to ensure that working life is socially sustainable continues with full force and is important during the green transition.

The transition in northern Sweden is special due to its scale and high speed. In order for the labor supply to be matched against the needs of the business sector, a long series of policy areas need to work together. Among other things, solutions for, for example, infrastructure, housing, educational opportunities, and competence migration must be put in place quickly.

Arbetsförmedlingen shall support skills supply in the labor market. The Government has tasked the agency with developing its work with labor market policy measures and employer contacts in order to contribute to a more efficient skills supply. The assignment includes improving the professional and geographical mobility among job seekers. Arbetsförmedlingen shall also develop the work with skills supply in the case of large company establishments and company expansions.

Arbetsförmedlingen has a wide range of measures to meet the labor market's skill needs and get more job seekers into work. This can involve matching services that contribute to more contacts with employers. It can also involve labor market training to equip the job seekers for the vacant jobs. The Government has tasked Arbetsförmedlingen with referring more to labor market training and maintaining a continued high number of participants in matching services. We are also investing money in more internship placements in the budget for the year.

The government is also investing several billion during the coming years in the transition package that the labor market parties have negotiated, which gives many employees the opportunity to retrain and upskill in the middle of their careers. It will help both regarding the individual's future position on the labor market and the employer's skill supply.

Furthermore, Arbetsförmedlingen collaborates with several actors for a well-functioning supply of skills - these include commissioned training programs based on chains of interventions where the training is tailored to the job seeker's and the labor market's needs. For example, there are commissioned training programs for maintenance engineers, energy engineers, and electrical engineers that have been developed in collaboration with, among others, Luleå University of Technology.

Arbetsförmedlingen has also recently established an office for conversion and matching in the north, with offices in Skellefteå and Luleå. The office works with both private and public employers to cover as large a part of the skills shortage as possible.

Overall, the larger establishments and expansions attracted to Norrbotten and Västerbotten counties entail a need for interventions from many different sides and actors in order to manage the competence supply. Arbetsförmedlingen is one of these important actors.

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Zara Leghissa (S)

Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by thanking the Minister for the answer to my interpellation. Johan Pehrson shows a willingness to continue the work that the Social Democratic government has begun, which pleases me.

Just as the Minister describes in his answer, solutions for infrastructure, housing, educational opportunities, and the influx of skills must be quickly put in place. These measures are urgent, and now the government must hurry so that this becomes a reality.

To ensure social sustainability, further investments are required. A socially sustainable society is an equal and equitable society where people live a good life with good health without unjust inequalities, a society with high tolerance where people know trust and confidence in one another and are involved in social development. The importance of secure jobs, life between the houses, and the sense of community creates secure societies.

Madam Speaker! Crime in the working life is spreading across the Swedish labor market, and it is a major societal problem. Fraud and exploitation on the labor market are escalating. The consequences are devastating for workers, for serious companies, and for society as a whole.

Order and order must prevail on the Swedish labor market. Companies that do the right thing should not be competed out by companies that cheat or commit criminal acts. It is also about the legitimacy of our welfare system, which is based on taxes and fees being paid in.

The Social Democratic-led government appointed a delegation in the autumn of 2021 to act in a unifying and supportive manner from a society-wide perspective in relation to actors who counteract crime in the working life and to promote cooperation and exchange of experience between them.

The delegation recently handed over the partial report Work-related Crime - the work in Sweden, an assessment of the extent, lessons from Denmark and Finland.

Workplace crime causes great physical and mental suffering for those who are exposed, and the number of unreported cases is large. Particularly vulnerable industries are within Construction, restaurant, transport, personal care, cleaning, healthcare, elderly care, social services, agriculture and forestry, car care and waste management. More resources are also needed for the Swedish Work Environment Authority.

Madam Speaker! In September 2022, the report The regional safety representatives' role in the work environment work was also submitted. The investigation proposes that the regional safety representatives should also be given access to workplaces where the workers' organizations lack members. There is, in fact, an increased risk that workers are working at a workplace where there is a lack of both local safety representatives and access rights for the regional safety representatives. The investigation also makes the assessment that this proposal facilitates the regional safety representatives' opportunity to counteract an unhealthy work environment and counteract work-life crime.

Madam Speaker! My question to the Minister is what the Minister's position is regarding this assessment and whether the Minister intends to act in accordance with the commission's proposals.

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Linus Sköld (S)

Madam Speaker! It is in the north where the country's great growth hope lies at the moment. Climate change is a matter of destiny, and in Sweden we have come far in terms of transitioning the electricity system, heating, and other energy-intensive sectors. But two large societal sectors remain, and those are industry and the transport sector.

Sweden's single largest emitter is located right here in my neighboring municipality in Luleå, namely SSAB. That their production becomes fossil-free will cut Sweden's total carbon emissions by around 10 percent. Reducing climate emissions is something that must be done. But it can only be successful if it is done with broad popular support in a way that people perceive as fair. Therefore, what is currently happening in the industry, especially in the industry in northern Sweden, is an example that shows the way.

Instead of placing the blame on every individual's consumption, new industrialization shows that the transition can mean growth, added value, and more jobs while simultaneously leading to large reductions in emissions.

The government's coordinator has said that in the coming decades, up to 100,000 people need to move to Norrbotten and Västerbotten. The matching between supply and demand for labor must work if it is to be successful. In that case, access to education is crucial.

I naturally welcome that the government and Johan Pehrson now also see the green transition as something important. Even though he has clashed with climate deniers and opponents of the pioneer project Hybrit, he writes together with government colleagues Ebba Busch and Andreas Carlson in a debate article in Dagens industri on January 11 that the green transition is a golden opportunity. That is pleasing.

Consequently, we also hear Johan Pehrson say in his response here today that solutions for, for example, infrastructure, housing, educational opportunities, and the influx of skilled labor must be quickly put in place. Beautiful, indeed.

But what is the government doing? So far, the government has withdrawn support for building housing, cut the labor market policy by 1.5 billion SEK, and cut the funds for adult education places by almost 2 billion SEK. Johan Pehrson forgot electricity. That also needs to be established quickly. Instead, the government has made it more difficult to build offshore wind power, which perhaps is what has the best prospects of delivering just quickly and cheaply.

So far, the government is not showing any signs of delivering anything at all that the green transition needs quickly - on the contrary.

On February 5, Johan Pehrson was on SVT's Agenda, which that evening was about precisely the new industrialization in the north. He was then asked what is the most important thing the government is doing to help with the skills supply in the green transition. Johan Pehrson answered then: Investing in education is the absolute most important thing.

He must have been aware that the government, in the only budget it has presented so far, is reducing the appropriations to adult education by 1.2 billion kronor, to the folk high schools by around half a billion kronor, to the university college by approximately 100 million kronor, to the academy by around 85 million kronor, and to labor market training by hundreds of millions.

My question, Johan Pehrson, is therefore: When will the minister return with proposals that mean he actually does what he says?

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Teresa Carvalho (S)

Madam Speaker! I would like to begin by thanking my colleagues from the Norrbotten bench for important interpellations.

I requested the floor to emphasize that the new industrialization that is now taking place in, among other places, Norrbotten and which creates growth, jobs and faith in the future in northern Sweden is not only a matter for Norrland but for all of Sweden, also for us in Östergötland.

How this new industrialization is managed today will have a very great influence on our country's development. What we do now determines whether we will be able to reap the fruits of having been at the forefront or let a fantastic potential go lost.

Madam Speaker! A couple of weeks ago, we visited Kiruna with Social Democratic members of the Committee on Industry and Trade to specifically experience the fantastic green transition taking place there and in many other places around northern Sweden, but also, of course, the challenges that exist along the way.

It was an incredibly rewarding journey, not only because Kiruna is an incredibly beautiful place in our country but also because we got to take part in all the exciting things happening there. We visited all three primary industries - the mine of course, tourism and the space industry - and of course also the public service.

The problem in Kiruna and in other places around are not unemployment but a shortage of labor. There is also a shortage of housing. There will also be a shortage of electricity to continue producing fossil-free iron and steel, which can reduce Sweden's total carbon emissions by substantial amounts.

On our short but intense journey, we received three very clear messages.

Firstly: Training is needed to equip people so that they can take the jobs that exist and those that will exist in the future. Everything from shorter vocational training to advanced university education is needed.

Secondly: Housing was needed so that people have somewhere to live when they move to where the jobs are. The housing shortage is already a concern, but it will become an increasingly acute situation.

Thirdly: Invest in wind power because it can provide cheaper electricity even in the short term! That is what they said. We cannot afford to wait, they also said.

It is a reasonable accompaniment, I think. But what does the Minister for Employment think? Unfortunately, the right-wing government does not seem to have quite understood what is at stake here. What else is the reason for the government cutting back on adult education, abolishing the investment support to build more rental apartments, and worsening the conditions for offshore wind power? It is the exact opposite of what was needed for Sweden to consolidate its leading position in the green transition in order to secure more, thousands of, new jobs for Sweden and move our country forward.

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Sofia Amloh (S)

Madam Speaker! I would really like to thank the interpellants and the Minister for the opportunity for this important debate. I completely agree with what has been said here by my colleagues.

I am a third-generation steelworks worker. I was born and raised in a small industrial town, Oxelösund, south of Stockholm. There we had everything we needed for a good life: a rich association and sports life, nature, the salty sea winds from the Baltic Sea, tourism in the summer, schools, libraries, a good selection in the center, and housing regardless of where in life you were.

Oxelösund exists because SSAB exists, and not the other way around. SSAB is today a dramatically large emitter of carbon dioxide. SSAB's advanced steel production causes extensive negative environmental impact. But with the new Swedish technology to produce steel, we will turn reality 180 degrees. SSAB will become an environmental model with Hybrit. Carbon dioxide emissions in Sweden will decrease by over 10 percent. It is a great success in the fight for a better environment.

This creates competitiveness by being at the forefront of the climate transition. This benefits not only SSAB as a company but all of Sweden, which becomes a leader in sustainable environmental technology and contributes to climate benefits for all of Northern Europe. It is something that many other countries want to emulate.

Do we recognize this story anywhere? What I want to say is that the industry is part of the solution - not the problem. The industry was the backbone when we built the folkhemmet, the welfare state, and the Swedish prosperity. Now we are to use the industry for a climate transition that can contribute to growth, development, and new jobs throughout Sweden. The Swedish industry shall be world-leading in this transition.

SSAB's and the entire Swedish basic industry's green transition has a revolutionary significance for the climate but also for our ability to remain competitive for a long time to come. It is incredibly important for a small country like Sweden, and it concerns thousands of jobs.

What lies before us now is to build the new green folkhemmet - to take our industrial towns and cities to 2.0, into a new era in our history. In that case, the state and the government cannot be passive. For everything that is required for a society to be able to function to exist, the government needs to match up and play in the league that is required to build the new green industrialization and secure Swedish prosperity for a long time to come.

My question is: Does this government intend to level up and play in the big league that is required moving forward? That is what is required to be able to transform societies and for people to be able to take the jobs that will exist and be able to have a life in the cities and communities that we want to see. We have done it before, and we will need to do it again.

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Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)

Madam Speaker! I shall try to answer this very enthusiastic cannonade of various approaches to something that is very important. It is about Sweden, about Sweden's development, about Sweden's transition and about the importance of us having a labor market that ensures that needs can be met by a competence of people.

We must not have this division. Over the last eight years, Sweden has been pulled apart. High unemployment has taken hold. Long-term unemployment has taken hold. It has also gone in the right direction in Sweden, albeit downwards. In an enormous boom that has characterized this period, we have nevertheless seen that we have a major challenge with over half a million registered at the Swedish Public Employment Service. Not everyone may be immediately eligible for regular jobs, but a good number of people are openly unemployed. Previous governments have tried in different ways to manage this so that these people will get into work, but it has gone so-so.

We have seen a crime against the working life that has grown ever stronger and where people are suffering. We have seen an energy policy that has caused the Swedish basic industry that has built this country - whether it is SSAB, LKAB or Boliden - to sit in their rooms and cry. They have wondered: What are you doing with our country and with our functioning energy system?

I note that all members who were at the rostrum now spoke about the importance of fossil-free energy and that it should be free from carbon dioxide emissions. The idea that nuclear power should be phased out is now ruled out by the Social Democratic interpellants. Thank you for that! Thank you for daring to stand up for Swedish expertise! Thank you for daring to stand up for the nuclear power that was once planned for 24 reactors! It became 12, and now there are 6 left. Thank you for not sticking to the almost - in the situation we find ourselves in in the world, not only climatically but also security-wise - headless policy that was conducted!

I can state that the interpellants and the party they represent did not see this coming for eight years. Now everything is happening at once, and that is good. I will try to stand here Tuesday after Tuesday, Wednesday after Wednesday, and Thursday after Thursday and try to explain to you how I see it hanging together. In energy policy, we are on, and we need both nuclear power, wind power, and solar power. We need to de facto double the production in Sweden.

I will also say something about the education. One must do what works. It must be efficient and close to the workplace. Regarding the conscious interpretation made by the opposition that the government is cutting back heavily on education and popular education, I note that the Social Democrats also acknowledge that the pandemic in its worst parts has ceased. I see that the previous government removed the initiatives that were made during the pandemic, and I see now how this government, for example, invests in what we know is effective: regional vocational adult education. There, we are at a double as high state grant as before the pandemic, because it is this that works. It is about language and jobs.

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Zara Leghissa (S)

Madam Speaker! My question regarding the regional safety representatives was not quite addressed, but perhaps it will be resolved during the course of the debate.

When it comes to social sustainability, there are very many puzzle pieces that are equally important and that belong together. Another challenge in the green transition concerns our common welfare. This is a sector that, together with industrialism, is a prerequisite for creating growth. Unemployment is low in northern Sweden, and the number of people of working age is not sufficient to match the staffing needs. Safe and local healthcare, school, and care are a prerequisite for everyone to be able to go to work.

Madam Speaker! Our common welfare must be secured and strengthened, as it exists in symbiosis with the green transition. But the working environment is not so satisfactory. There is a shortage of trained staff. The workload therefore becomes high and colleagues are too few. Municipalities in northern Sweden fear that they will have difficulty meeting the staffing requirements and that they will therefore also have problems meeting their mandate.

The resources in the government's budget for municipalities and regions are far from sufficient. Staff work overtime, especially during the holiday periods, and the number of sick leaves is high. More are forced into part-time work and thus receive lower income. I need not mention that a majority of those who work in this sector are women.

I wonder if the Minister and the government have any plan to strengthen the welfare sector in northern Sweden. Johan Pehrson argues that the municipalities' finances are strained due to investments in social infrastructure and that the expansion of high-quality school, healthcare, and elderly care follows population growth and is absolutely crucial for a successful new industrialization, and that in the longer term it is positive that the northern municipalities are growing, both for the municipal economy and for the national economy as a whole.

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Linus Sköld (S)

Madam Speaker! I asked Johan Pehrson when he intends to start doing what he says. I note that it requires a pandemic for Johan Pehrson to do what he says.

Demand for educational places and the need for an active labor market policy can be expected to increase. An economic crisis is imminent, and the pressures are increasing. The transition study support enables partially new groups to study, and the youth cohorts from upper secondary school are also increasing. The year 2023 is the wrong time to cut back on educational places for adults, Johan Pehrson - pandemic or not.

Johan Pehrson has also said that the government is now stepping in and governing the upper secondary schools and that there should be more steering towards jobs that exist. By that, he must have meant that he has taken the reform that the S-government pushed through this spring and which is now being implemented to its core. When we handled it in the Riksdag, the Liberals were hesitant and would have preferred a pilot project rather than a full-scale implementation. It can be said to be pleasing that Johan Pehrson is now in favor of dimensioning and planning of upper secondary education better matching the needs of the labor market.

But on February 5, Johan Pehrson said in Agenda that it is envisioned that people can be educated in southern and central Sweden and that people will arrive fully educated to the industries in the north. The 100,000 people who need to move to the north shall therefore be educated in southern and central Sweden.

What does Johan Pehrson mean by this? The dimensioning reform that he has just said he has taken to heart is based on the idea that educational providers shall adapt the supply to the needs of the regional labor market. But with this statement, it seems as if Johan Pehrson instead means that educational providers in southern and central Sweden should adapt their supply to what is demanded on the labor market in the north. Does the government intend to revise the planning and dimensioning principles when it comes to upper secondary education?

At this point, it is well known that the government intends to close the vocational schools, and it is simply regrettable. In Agenda, Johan Pehrson said that it may become relevant to have national admissions for important and central educations, and his colleague, the Minister for Education, said something similar in an interpellation debate a few months ago. But here, it seems to be the case with the minister's promises to invest in education, that is to say, empty words. I have searched in the Tidö Agreement, in the government statement, in the budget, and in the investigation directives that this government has decided on without finding a single trace of a mention of nationally recruiting educations. What are the nationally recruiting educations that the minister means?

In summary, I would like the Minister to clarify two issues in his next contribution. The first is: What is the Minister intending to happen with the upper secondary education? Does the Government intend to change the dimensioning principles even before the new ones have been introduced? The second is: What is the national interest that the Minister is talking about?

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Teresa Carvalho (S)

Madam Speaker! If one wants to be generous and kind in one's interpretation, which one should be, one can view it positively that the Minister for Employment seems to express a positive view on the green transition taking place in northern Sweden and the potential that comes with it. Johan Pehrson also seems to share our analysis from the interpellator's side that more education is needed. The Minister for Employment did not say much about housing, but he seems to agree that more fossil-free electricity is needed to meet the new industrialization and for Sweden to be able to stay at the forefront and get tens of thousands of new jobs instead of them going to other countries. Very good!

The problem is that the Minister for Employment does not really seem to take to heart what is his and the government's responsibility when it comes to creating the conditions for the green transition to succeed. The Minister for Employment says that he focuses on education, but the number of educational places is becoming drastically fewer than last year. Housing seems to be someone else's responsibility primarily. Regarding electricity, the Minister for Employment agrees that we need all the electricity - both nuclear power and wind power. I note, however, that the government and the Sverigedemokraterna seem to have entangled themselves in a culture war that paralyzes them when it comes to quickly ramping up electricity production, which wind power can actually contribute to.

I must say that the government overall gives a rather sleepy impression in these matters. It is becoming time to wake up now. Cast off the ideological blinkers, turn your gaze northward and do what is required! I promise that I will cheer and wish the government good luck - for the sake of all of Sweden.

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Sofia Amloh (S)

Madam Speaker! During the years 2008-2010 we had a conservative government. Also then we had an economic crisis. That government's interest in Swedish base industry was rather cool. Many times we were poorly off - companies moved abroad and so on. It is actually the last ten years that we have been able to see how industrialization is coming back, establishing itself, growing and has a future in Sweden and that one chooses the green transition here. This development has occurred. It is about the fact that politics needs to create the conditions and believe in it.

My question remains: Does the bourgeois government intend to continue to be passive, look the other way and hope that it resolves itself with housing and welfare, which is required to build the green societies and for the green industry to exist here? Or does one intend to actively step in and be one of the parties required to make this journey when it comes to new, Swedish and green industrialization during the coming decades?

I still do not hear the Minister answering this. I hear that it is important, but I do not hear much more.

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Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)

Madam Speaker! It takes some time to transform a vessel that has been snowed in by inefficiency and to sweep away conflicting goals. Take this matter of energy, for example, which you from the side of the interpellants are raising. You have stood behind a government that has cut back on this, which has caused LKAB, SSAB and Boliden to sit with a nervous twitch and wonder where their future is headed, where the base industry is headed.

There was a question raised regarding whether the regional safety representatives should be allowed to act. That investigation has been submitted and is undergoing referral. The answer to the question is that I must get back to it. I have to go through this carefully. There are truly pros and cons - quite a few advantages. I will have to get back to that.

We still have a responsibility to build housing. All these subsidies that the Social Democrats have pushed into this country have led to some million program areas. I don't know if I think they all turned out great, if we look at how they look and function. They are being rebuilt now in large parts, which is good.

It is clear that it must be built, but it should be built based on demand, that one builds the homes that people need to have. Then it is also a matter of that opportunities must be prepared in the municipalities. It should be easier to build and to get permits. That is how you speed things up. The lack of access in Skellefteå, in Kiruna and in other parts is not that one does not want to build. In Kiruna, the entire city is being rebuilt. Large parts are being moved to meet this.

It is not entirely obvious that state tax money, which we collect from the citizens and which is to be given to developers who are to build for other companies, is the best solution. But we must ensure that it is facilitated and that opportunities are created for more new homes.

Then a turn to the extensive crime in working life. It is also something that is eating its way into society, eating its way into the marrow of Sweden right now. Serious organized crime is everywhere. It is on our streets, on our squares. We see it in these shootings, where Sweden is breaking records. People do not dare to go out, lives are extinguished and dreams are crushed. This crime does not only see a market in fraud against elderly people and others who have difficulty defending themselves, but also eats its way in, in addition to continuing with its usual weapons and narcotics trade and its extortion, in our welfare systems, not least through fraud with wage subsidies and tax evasion. We heard about this in the debate earlier.

The Tax Crime Unit and the Economic Crime Authority are making enormous efforts to try to stop the serious gangs. I saw them coming, but very little happened. That is why we are now restructuring the entire criminal policy to address it.

Education, I think, is good. I am the first to point out Social Democrats who act independently and do not sit in the lap of people who have completely different visions. The Social Democrats were created when Sweden was to be industrialized, but you have chosen to cooperate with a party that has always wanted to ensure that Sweden is de-industrialized. Then it becomes strange, of course.

It is very good that we have now provided opportunities to dimension upper secondary education. I do not think that should be changed. But it is required that the educational providers act and produce the educations that are needed - more practical educations and even more theoretical educations that can lead to it also coming engineers to the large investments in the north, besides the capable people who do the work on site. That is also important.

I return to the question of dimensioning at the national level and ensuring that one can get an education in Örebro or Malmö and then, when finished, start working in Skellefteå.

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Zara Leghissa (S)

Madam Speaker! In our secure society, working life shall be sustainable. It shall also be developing. Work shall be a source of security, self-sufficiency, and freedom when one as a young person starts their first job and all the way until retirement.

We Social Democrats stand up for a secure labor market with order and structure. Labor immigration shall be market-tested. Everyone in Sweden shall have a secure job where one is neither exploited nor worn out. We shall have good and fair conditions and a good working environment. That is a prerequisite for high productivity in the Swedish economy, which is characterized by a high labor force participation and a high employment rate where full-time is the norm.

The journey to secure jobs must also be socially sustainable. Education, housing construction, infrastructure, welfare, meaningful leisure time, and even culture are fundamental in employment, in transition, as newcomers to the Swedish labor market, as job seekers, and based on individual circumstances. Therefore, reforms for secure jobs were needed.

Now it is time to move from words to action. It makes a difference for all of Sweden. I hope that Johan Pehrson will work to ensure that all municipalities in all of Sweden are given the conditions to be socially sustainable, to ensure safety between the houses, and sees the necessity of countering crime in the working life. The future is in northern Sweden.

(Applause)

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Linus Sköld (S)

Madam Speaker! I just wanted to briefly begin by saying that Johan Pehrson should keep a low profile when it comes to judging others' partners in cooperation. When we talk about the green transition today, not the entire government base, so to speak, is fully on board with the need for this.

Johan Pehrson wrote as mentioned in Dagens industri a couple of months ago that the government shall develop a strategy for northern Sweden. One of the points that the strategy shall address concerns competence supply. Johan Pehrson himself writes that the need is great regarding relevant vocational training, higher education, and adult education. Still, this government chooses to cut in the vocational training and to shut down the vocational schools.

It will also be exciting to hear Johan Pehrson in his final contribution clarify what he actually meant when he said in Agenda that the dimensioning should be governed at a national level.

A debate article in Dagens industri is all well and good, but now it is time to deliver. Industry is at the forefront but cannot stay there for long if the government does not deliver the necessary conditions. Johan Pehrson's part in this is, of course, the labor market policy and the matching function between labor supply and labor demand. Education policy is a given part of that, but so is labor market policy.

I note that Johan Pehrson says that he wants to invest in education, but that in reality he continues to stand by the cuts that he himself has presented in the budget.

(Applause)

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Arbetsmarknads- och integrationsministern Johan Pehrson (L)

Madam Speaker! I thank you for the expressions of joy, but I guess they were not primarily directed at me. It is nice when there is a bit of momentum in the chamber.

We must, of course, have sustainable development in every way, also socially. My area of responsibility is primarily Arbetsförmedlingen, but as a representative of the government, I am happy to step in and speak about the entire education system. Youth education is central. For years we have seen how young people are knocked out of primary school and do not get into upper secondary school. Sooner or later, they will end up at Arbetsförmedlingen via some detour and risk becoming long-term unemployed. We know that the proportion of young people, or people in general, with a full secondary education – a Pass is sufficient – is almost non-existent.

The people who are in unemployment are people who, over a long period, have had to etch themselves into the pain that it means to be long-term unemployed without having been given sufficient requirements or enough help during the years that have passed. For this, there is a responsibility among the people here in the chamber.

We are making major investments in schools, because there is no better labor market policy than for everyone to leave school with passing grades. More people choosing upper secondary schools that are both practically oriented and theoretically oriented will also not harm the future labor market. For those who have poor language skills - regardless of why, it is a failure that we are going to change - we are investing in vocational adult education where both language and vocational training are mixed so that they can then get into jobs. We also have good experience with this.

Arbetsförmedlingen shall assign more to labor market training. I have said that we shall look at national responsibility and that the state must step in. We will return to this to take a greater responsibility so that one can, for example, attend training that is otherwise regionally adapted. It is not about basic upper secondary school or primary school, but about labor market training.

The interpellations debate was hereby concluded.

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