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UNEMPLOYMENT

Compulsory unemployment insurance: 433 kronor

A government inquiry set up to look into the development of a compulsory unemployment insurance fund (a-kassa) has proposed a 433 kronor ($72) monthly fee for the service, SVT news programme Aktuelt reports.

Published: 17 April 2008 11:36 CEST

Ever since a-kassa charges were raised by the government at the beginning of last year, some 400,000 people have left the system, leaving a total of around one million people without unemployment insurance.

From January 1st 2010 however, anybody who is not a member of an existing fund will be obliged to pay a monthly fee to a new government agency – Myndigheten för arbetslöshetsförsäkringsavgift (‘Unemployment Insurance Fee Agency’).

The government inquiry had initially been scheduled to present its preliminary findings in January but the head of the inquiry was given an extension until May.

The inquiry is expected to be completed by September 30th.

EUROPEAN UNION

Sweden heads for economic slowdown EU warns

The European Union has warned that Sweden's economy is facing a marked slowdown, with unemployment set to rise above seven percent as companies cut back on investment.

Published: 9 November 2019 22:03 CET
Sweden heads for economic slowdown EU warns
Jobseekers entering an office of the Swedish Public Employment Service back in 2016, when the economy was booming. Photo: Jessica Gow/TT
The August 2019 economic forecast from the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs sees the rate of growth of Sweden's real GDP dropping to one percent next year.
 
This is slower than what is expected for all but four of the other 28 European Union members, and well below the brisk  four percent rate the country enjoyed back in 2015. 
 
“Sweden’s economy is clearly slowing down. Domestic demand and investment in particular are weak,” the report read, blaming the insipid domestic demand on a decline in investment in the housing market following years of strong growth. 
 
The slowing economy had also pushed Swedish manufacturers to hold back on investments in equipment, exacerbating the decline. 
 
The authors pointed out that planned government spending would do little to pick up the slack. 
 
“In spite of sizeable spending needs for schools, health care and welfare services linked to demographic developments, general government consumption is set to moderate in 2019 and 2020,” the report read. 
 
“Costs linked to migration should decrease, whereas new defence and health care expenses, priorities of the 2019 budget, are partially compensated by cutbacks on, among other items, labour market and environmental measures.” 
 
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While the report predicted that growth would start to pick up again in 2021, it warned that this recovery could be knocked off course by bad news internationally. 
 
“As the Swedish business cycle is closely aligned to that of its main trading partners, a deterioration of the external environment would weigh on the export sector,” it read. 
 
Real GDP in Germany and Belgium was also predicted to grow by just 1 percent in 2020, while Italy was expected to see a still more anaemic 0.04 percent growth rate. Every other EU country was predicted to grow faster, with Romania seeing the fastest growth at 3.6 percent. 
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