Sweden

European Union

Description

Labour market - free movement of workers

Informations

• Publié par: EUROPEAN-UNION
• Nombre de lectures: 11
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

[OM Series ΝΊ Labour Market Studies
SWEDEN
Employment & social affairs
European Commission Labour Market Studies
Sweden
By
The Swedish Institute for Social Research
and
ECOTEC Research and Consulting Ltd
December 1996
This report was financed by and prepared for the use of the European
Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial Relations
and Social Affairs. It does not necessarily represent the Commission's
official position. A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet.
It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu.int)
Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication
Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1997
ISBN 92-827-8753-2
© ECSC-EC-EAEC, Brussels · Luxembourg, 1997
Reproduction is authorized, except for commercial purposes, provided the source is acknowledged
Printed in Belgium A report by
The Swedish Institute for Social Research
Anna Thoursie and Eskil Wadensjö
and
ECOTEC Research and Consulting Ltd THE LABOUR MARKET IN SWEDEN
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 3
SUMMARY 5
1 ANALYSIS OF THE LABOUR MARKET SITUATION 17
1.1 Demographic Trends 1
1.2 Structure of the Labour Force8
1.3 Structure of Employment 22
1.4 Structure of Unemployment5
1.5 Main Trends in Job Creation and Job Loss 34
1.6 Main Wage and Salary Trends7
1.7 Main Trends in Working Time and Fixed Terms Contracts 41
1.8 Main Factors Behind the Development of Unemployment
1.9 Macroeconomic Policies and Forecasts 50
2 LABOUR MARKET INSTITUTIONS3
2.1 Public Institutions 5
2.2 The System of Industrial Relations5
2.2.1 Employers'Associations
2.2.2 Trade Unions6
2.2.3 Wage Bargaining7
2.2.4 Industrial conflicts9
2.3 Evaluation of Wage Bargaining Systems and Macro-Economic Performance 62
3 LABOUR MARKET LEGISLATION 64
3.1 Employment Protection Schemes
3.1.1 Lay-Offs, Dismissals and Quits
3.1.2 Parental Leave Arrangements5
3.1.3 Approaches to Part-Time and Temporary Employment 6
3.1.4 Laws Regarding Employee Involvement8
3.1.5 Equal Opportunities9
3.1.6 Disability Regulations 71
3.1.7 Health and Safety3
3.2 Regulation of Working TimeTHE LABOUR MARKET IN SWEDEN
3.3 Minimum Wage Regulation 74
3.4 Work Environmentn5
3.5 Evaluation of the Employment Effects of Employment Protections Schemes 76
4 LABOUR MARKET POLICIES 82
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Passive Measures
4.3 Active measures6
4.3.1 Demand side measures7
4.3.2 Supply sides 88
4.3.3 Youth measures9
4.3.4 Disability programmes 90
4.3.5 Measures supporting self-employment2
4.4 The Financing of Passive and Active Labour Market Policy 9
4.5 Subsidies to Promote Employment4
4.6 Evaluation of Labour Market Policies
5 OTHER POLICIES HAVING AN IMPACT ON THE LABOUR MARKET 9
5.1 Education and Vocational Training 99
5.2 Taxes and Benefits 102
5.2.1 Tax reform
5.2.2 The old age and disability pension scheme 103
5.2.3 Part-time pension7
5.2.4 Sickness cash and occupational injury benefits
5.2.5 Collectively bargained insurance schemes 110
5.3 Industrial Policies 111
5.4 Regional Policies
6 THE NATIONAL DEBATE - POLICY PERSPECTIVES4
6.1 Major Topics of Debate
6.2 Recent and current work by Government committees and commissions 119
REFERENCES 122
INDEX 130 THE LABOUR MARKET IN SWEDEN
INTRODUCTION
This report provides an account of the labour market in Sweden. It was produced for
the European Commission, DG V (Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial
Relations and Social Affairs) by Anna Thoursie and Eskil Wadensjö at the Swedish
Institute for Social Research, who carried out the research and wrote the report.
ECOTEC Research and Consulting Ltd assisted in the editing and wrote the
introduction and summary.
This study is one of a series of reports covering all the fifteen member states. Their
aims are to take stock and analyse labour market developments in the EU in order to
inform employment policies in the light of the conclusions of the Essen Summit:
• the promotion of investments in vocational training
• the increase in the employment-intensiveness of growth
• the lowering of indirect wage costs
• the increase in the effectiveness of labour market policy
• the strengthening of measures for groups particularly affected by unemployment.
The report Is structured in six sections, as follows:
• Section 1 provides an analysis of the labour market situation in Sweden. It
examines the background to the labour market by considering: demographic
trends; the structure of the workforce; trends in job creation, job loss and wages
and salaries; the causes of unemployment; and macroeconomic policies and
forecasts.
• Section 2 describes the main labour market institutions, including public
employment services, collective wage bargaining and employee participation
systems.
• Section 3 examines labour market legislation. This section includes a discussion of
employment protection schemes, regulations on working time, minimum wages
and the work environment.
• Section 4 describes Sweden's labour market policies, in terms of both active and
passive measures. Implementation of active measures by public bodies is
discussed and the range of existing active labour market policy measures are
described. This section concludes with an evaluation of the labour market
measures. THE LABOUR MARKET IN SWEDEN
Section 5 presents an overview of other policies which have an impact on the
labour market and which are not discussed in Section 4. The discussion includes,
therefore, policies on education and training, taxation, social security and
industrial and regional policies.
The final Section places the discussion in the report in the context of the national
debate in Sweden.
A short summary of the report is presented before Section 1.