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Labour market
| About 4 million people are in the labour force. Unemployment was for many years kept low by international standards, due to a strong business
sector, the growth of the public sector, and an ambitious labour market policy.
However, due to the recession that began in 1990, the jobless rate has risen considerably and open unemployment amounted to 6.5% in 1998. |
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The standard working week is 40 hours by law. There are five weeks’ statutory paid
vacation. Roughly 22% of the labour force, mainly women, work part-time. 69% of all women aged 16-64 are gainfully
employed.
About 83% of all employees are members of a trade union. The central union bodies are: the Trade Union Confederation (LO) for manual
workers, the Confederation of Salaried Employees (TCO) for white-collar
employees, and the Confederation of Professional Associations (SACO) mainly for graduate-level white-collar
employees. The main business organization, the Swedish Employers’ Confederation
(SAF), represents all kinds of private companies grouped in trade associations. |
A large number of laws regulate the labour market, including acts on employment
security, the status of shop stewards, the work environment and employee participation in
decision making.
Value-added tax (VAT) on most goods and services is 6-25%. Employers pay 33.03% and employees 6.95% in social security contributions to cover pensions, health insurance and other social
benefits. In addition, companies pay another 6-7.4% in pensions etc. under collective
agreements. After a major income tax reform in 1991 income taxes were lowered
considerably. Income taxes now take the form of municipal/county council tax
(presently about 31%) plus a 20% national levy on taxable incomes over SEK 213,200 a
year. The marginal income tax rate (or tax bracket), however, is presently about 60%, since in 1995, the state income tax went up to 25% and individual social security fees were
introduced. |
More information
about labour market is available from Swedish Institute
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