Every two years, the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise conducts its large recruitment survey among member companies. Companies say it has become more difficult to find the right person when hiring, even though that has been fairly static in recent years.
"Regardless of the economic situation, companies say it is difficult to find the right skills," says Bernhardsen, head of skills supply at the employers' organization.
One in four recruitment attempts fail completely, according to the survey, answered by 5,000 companies. The hardest to find is skilled labor.
"We have a great shortage of sheet metal workers, for example," she says.
“Not seen before”
Some effects will be that existing staff will be allowed to work more and that employers will be allowed to change requirements.
"Companies are training more themselves these days," says Bernhardsen.
And if the right formal skills are not found:
"This makes qualities and experiences all the more important."
This will be more expensive for companies, she notes, and is supported by Jonas Jegers, an industrial policy expert at the employers' organization Almega, who, in his own study, states that the proportion of unemployed university graduates is rising in the ten largest cities.
"That trend is something we haven't seen before," he says.
Engineers notified
In Stockholm, for example, almost every other unemployed person registered with the employment service has post-secondary education.
He mentions several major announcements in the last six months that, according to him, support the thesis.
"A large layoff at Scania in Södertälje of 750 people, all white-collar workers and many well-educated. There were 2,000 laid off at Volvo in Gothenburg. They are engineers, straight up," says Jonas Jegers.
On top of that, there is a large layoff at the telecom group Ericsson, involving highly educated engineers.
"What they all have in common is that they are structural transformations and not cyclical ones," says Jegers.
Highest in a long time
His point is that it must become cheaper to retain and train personnel in times when development is accelerating - that is, lower taxes and deductions for further education.
Mia Bernhardsen also notes that unemployment among academics is the highest in a long time. According to Saco, it is the highest in 20 years - about 100,000 people, based on statistics from last fall.
Bernhardsen does not want to go so far as to say that Sweden has too many university graduates, but says the education system is poorly designed and does not meet the needs of the labor market.
"It is high time to revalue vocational training."
Upper secondary vocational education remains the competence that most companies are looking for; 42 percent of employers state this.
31 percent of companies indicate demand for post-secondary vocational education.
The need for university-educated skills has remained relatively stable over time, at 29 percent.
31 percent of companies do not set any formal training requirements.
Approximately 5,000 companies responded to the survey. The response rate was 27 percent.
Source: Confederation of Swedish Enterprise
