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Municipalities are highly critical of the Swedish Public Employment Service in a new survey of Swedish municipalities and regions, SKR. The survey raised questions about local presence and support for job seekers.
More and more municipalities feel that the Swedish Public Employment Service is not fulfilling its mission, as cuts and office closures are something that has led to a lack of attendance, says Roy Melchert, manager of the labor market issues section from SKR who made the report.
In the instructions of the Swedish Public Employment Service and the assignments establish that priority must be given to those furthest from the labor market, and that the authority must also provide an equivalent service throughout the country, he explains.
– But the consequence of this will be the opposite. We see that those who have already been away from the labor market, the weakest sectors of society, are also the most affected. We can also see that the Swedish Public Employment Service does not have enough resources to serve these people, says Roy Melchert.
The situation is worrying when the crown crisis hits with record warnings and rising unemployment, he says. When the authority has also closed most of its offices and reduced its workforce, municipalities are forced to take away their own resources, according to the report.
Read more: Difficult for young Gothenburgers in the labor market during the crisis
On Thursday evening, SVT reported also that 184 municipalities will be without offices by the end of the year, according to the final report of the Swedish Public Employment Service. This despite the new resources provided by the government to reopen several offices.
The Minister of Labor Eva Nordmark (S) is fundamental:
– It is absolutely central that we have a labor market policy that works in the locality. And that we have an authority that regardless of where you live in the country, you have the opportunity to have booked visits, but also that employers, regardless of where you are in this elongated country, should be able to find the right skills to develop their business, tells SVT.
Maria Mindhammar.
Photo: Christine Olsson / TT
At the end of last year, the government commissioned the Swedish Public Employment Service to ensure a local presence. Today, only two out of every five municipalities think that the authority has achieved it.
Only two out of five municipalities think that the Swedish Public Employment Service has ensured a local presence.
– We need a well-functioning system, in which equality is equalized and work is adapted to the different needs of job seekers and employers. Job seekers are struggling in various places to get help with a simpler service. It can be, for example, interpreting messages, says Roy Melchert.
Read more: More than 100,000 registered with the Swedish Public Employment Service since the crown crisis began
The employment service itself warned of an increasingly pressured situation already at the beginning of the pandemic. Managing Director Maria Mindhammar explains that she takes the opinions of the municipalities very seriously, but at the same time does not agree that the work of the Swedish Public Employment Service is worse.
– We work hard and really do everything we can to give the support to the municipalities that they feel they need. This includes our work to care for the newly enrolled so that they do not end up in long-term unemployment.
– I want to emphasize that in many municipalities there is good cooperation, but that it does not work so well in others. We need to constantly improve and we must work together to achieve that goal. But it is clear that the pandemic has affected us, he says.
It is important to have unified expectations around the division of responsibilities, but at the same time the discussion will continue on what resources the state should invest, he says.
– Municipalities have a great responsibility in the education of those who are far from the labor market. Now, in the pandemic, when several have lost their jobs, the gender becomes longer and other people with more education may end up ahead of those already out of the labor market. Therefore, we must cooperate and get to know these people by educating them more, he says.
Maria Mindhammar sees that the current situation is partly due to the reduction in the administrative budget that caused the layoff of 4,500 employees last year and that the offices of the Public Employment Service were closed in more than 100 locations around the country.
– It is important to think in the future what the reform will mean for us, he says.
Read more. Arbetsförmedlingen: It is an incredibly pressured situation
