Already in November 2023, the Chancellor of Justice (JO) directed criticism at the Employment Service for lack of accessibility, and since then, new complaints have been received.
In the Employment Service's statement in the matter, several deficiencies emerged during the period under investigation, November 2023–November 2024. 45 percent of the calls were not answered, and the remaining ones that got through had to wait an average of 30 minutes.
Nine out of ten attempts to use the Employment Service's chat were not answered either. A total of 395,000 calls, or every fifth call, were filtered out by an overload protection system before they reached the phone queue.
The Employment Service itself acknowledges "that the authority's accessibility is not satisfactory". No improvements have been made since 2022 for job seekers trying to get phone contact, and the chat function has "deteriorated significantly".
The deficiencies are explained, among other things, by the rising unemployment. The authority has also received a government assignment to prioritize individuals who are far from the labor market, which is resource-intensive. As a result of reduced budget allocations, the authority has also been forced to reduce its staff.
