According to a LO report, the number of young jobless persons in Sweden receiving remuneration from the unemployment fund has decreased by 76 percent since 2006 in spite of the escalation of unemployment. In October 2012, 7 700 young persons received remuneration from the unemployment fund compared to 31 500 in October 2006. The number of young jobless persons with remuneration from the unemployment fund is now down to 10 percent in the whole country and the number of unrecorded cases is unknown.
Our experience is that young persons are especially hit by the Government’s cuts of the unemployment insurance. Thomas Carlén, LO economist, states that as young people also have a weaker position in the labour market and to a greater extent have fixed-term or part-time employment contracts, the tightening-up of the rules to qualify for remuneration from the unemployment insurance has had a tough effect on them.
The number of young persons who receive remuneration from the unemployment insurance is low.
In October 2012, some 10 percent of jobless young persons (full-time students not included) received remuneration from the unemployment insurance according to Statistics Sweden. A previous report from the Employment Office showed that only 15 percent of all young officially unemployed persons received remuneration from the unemployment insurance at the end of 2011 compared to some 50 percent at the beginning of the 2000s. However, both calculation methods overestimate the number of jobless young persons who receive remuneration.
Young people must now be granted better possibilities to enter the labour market and to qualify for remuneration from the unemployment insurance. In this context it is important to continue the professional introduction for young people – according to the purport of the Jobs Pact. The rules of the unemployment insurance must also be amended in order to facilitate for more young people to qualify for remuneration, and the conditions for studies ought to be reintroduced. By way of studying, you increase your possibilities to get a job and it must be worth investing in studies, Thomas Carlén concludes.
Gunilla Persson