"Now we have 9 percent unemployed. What is needed for it to become a crisis situation, so that measures are taken and that we get people into initiatives and training that lead to jobs," says Ardalan Shekarabi.
“A vacation post”
He thinks that the job as Minister of Labor in the current government looks like "a vacation post."
"It is the department that delivers the least in the entire government office. It has the fewest reforms and the fewest initiatives. It is not worthy of a society with this level of unemployment to do nothing," says Shekarabi.
According to Shekarabi, the ministry's list of proposals this year is empty and last year only one administrative matter was on the list of proposals.
And when we review the number of people in labor market training at this time, we think there is a zero missing, he says.
Shekarabi points to several proposals from the opposition, including that municipalities should be able to refer the unemployed to labor market training and that the Public Employment Service should be able to use resources that are left over for driver's license training.
Expecting a turnaround
Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson (M) notes that unemployment is far too high right now, but she expects a turnaround when growth is expected to pick up next year.
The best and most important thing we can do right now is to invest in a truly expansive budget that can break the recession, because then jobs will also come back, she says.
Svantesson also believes that the government's investment in vocational training will have an effect, as will the benefit reform it wants to introduce, which will put further pressure on moving from benefits to jobs.
