"We are seeing some positive signs in the labor market. But I think companies will wait until 2026 before making any major recruitment decisions," says Anita Rae, labor market manager at Jobbland.
A total of 96,338 job advertisements were published during October on Jobbland, which collects advertisements from several sources, including the Swedish Public Employment Service. This compares with 113,825 advertisements in the same month last year. A decline of just over 15 percent.
Reduced mobility
Recruitment usually increases after the summer, when many people decide to change jobs and actively look for new ones, Anita Rae points out.
"But now we're not seeing the same trend. That means there's still uncertainty about interest rates and future demand for labor. That's reducing the mobility that we usually see," she says.
The largest decrease in advertising is in sales and trade, minus 33.8 percent. Technology and engineering is down 27.3 percent. In IT, data and the service and hospitality industry, the fall is close to 23 percent.
However, the number of advertisements in social work and security is increasing, up 2.7 percent. For healthcare and education, the decline is moderate, down 2.6 and 3.0 percent respectively.
Priority stability
Geographically, the drop in advertisements is most pronounced in Stockholm County, minus 21.8 percent, while the decrease is around 20 percent in Västra Götaland and Skåne. Only in Örebro County is the number of job advertisements increasing, by 4.0 percent. The labor market is generally more stable outside the big cities.
Much of the office, service and hospitality industry is located in the big cities, while industry and the public sector, which are more stable, are more important in the smaller regions, says Anita Rae.
At the same time, there are many indications that the situation is brightening, with falling interest rates and stronger household finances.
The major cuts have already been made. Now companies are prioritizing more stability instead of expansion. We are waiting to see if the trend continues.
