According to figures from the Migration Agency, 7,630 people were granted residency in Sweden as an employee of a Swedish company in the first six months of 2024, down from 12,712 in the first six months of 2023, and 15,643 in the first six months of 2022.
The number of people given work permits to run their own company in Sweden also halved from 90 in the first six months of 2023 to 45 in the first six months of this year.
When other residency permits associated with work permits were taken into account, including permits given to self-employed people, dependents of work permit applicants, and researchers, the agency awarded 13,324 permits in the first half of 2024.
It received 21,071 applications in the period, and made a decision on 25,002. It had 16,946 cases waiting to be decided.
The Local reported in June that the number of Swedish work permits rejected because the applicant’s salary was too low has increased by almost 2,000 percent since the country tightened the rules last year.
Sweden on November 1st, 2023, raised its work permit salary threshold from around 13,000 kronor a month to 80 percent of the median salary, which went up to 28,480 kronor when new statistics were published in June.
Sweden's employers lobby group, the Confederation of Swedish Industry has sharply criticised the increase in the salary threshold for a work permit, with Sven-Olof Daunfeldt, the organisation's chief economist telling The Local in June that it was a "crazy" policy, which would harm Sweden's competitiveness.
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