Chamber of commerce warns of acute kompetenskris

Stockholm has the largest shortages of workers of all regions in Sweden, writes the Chamber of commerce in the report ”Kompetenskrisen threaten businesses”. Today is the shortage of knowledge-intensive labour, primarily within the finance, IT and communications is one of the single biggest threats to business productivity and continued growth.

– The company operates under a high international pressure. They lose in competitiveness if we do not solve the problem, " says Stefan Westerberg.

in Stockholm has increased by 30,000 people in the last year. The employment rate is 73 per cent, almost four percentage points higher than the kingdom. And unemployment is declining at a rapid pace, the number of unemployed is approximately 70,000 people, with 10,000 fewer than a year ago.

almost 40 per cent – 14,000 – of all vacant space in Stockholm. The vacancy rate now amounts to 1.4, it means that per 100 employees are 1.4 jobs available.

– the Matching has worsened over the past four years, we have an unnecessarily high unemployment. First, the pool of unemployed has changed, more has weaker conditions – but in the past, also came with strong conditions faster in the job, the efficiency is worse for everyone, " says Stefan Westerberg.

between unemployment and vacancies had worked out that during the period between the years 1996 and 2014, so did the unemployment rate today have been about two percentage points lower, according to the report, 30,000 more in employment.

"I think it is relevant to the work with competence development, adapted to the digitisation process – and focus on training linked to business needs, so that you do not bet on the wrong horse," says Stefan Westerberg.

also, according to him, that Stockholm has a very large number of long-term unemployed, people who have been unemployed over twelve months. Today there are approximately 27,000 persons, approximately three times more than before the crisis year 2009.

– It is a problem both for society and companies – and a social personal mishap where there is a large risk that they will be fastfrysta in long-term unemployment, " says Stefan Westerberg.

In the long term, fewer that have tasks that can be defined as ”simple” or ”repetitive”.

January to september 2018, the number of work permits granted for skilled occupations for people outside the EU/EEA to 4.566 pieces in the Stockholm county. It corresponds to 70% of all work permits in Sweden during the same time period.

But in order to be able to fill the vacancies in the Stockholm labour migration, according to the report, need to be tripled.

– And kompetensutvisningarna is a national self-injury. They often depend on the mistakes that they expelled not have done themselves. Very few understand how the Swedish Migration board framework looks like and how it should be interpreted, " says Stefan Westerberg.

" It has been a long time from the political hold that the situation will get better, but it has not happened anything. We think this is alarming, " says Stefan Westerberg.

Sweden is the country – after Belgium and Holland have the largest demand in the EU, in terms of the number of job vacancies, on the information and communication services in relation to the number of employees in the industry.

today is rekryteringstiden in Stockholm 29 days, which is higher than the average time for the last twelve years, 24 days. Stockholm has one of the longest rekryteringstiderna in Sweden.

Read more: New report: Stockholm is Europe's hidden Silicon valley