The Swedish Employment service has revealed that just 6.1 per cent of new arrival migrants were able to find full-time work not subsidised by the government last year.
The figures further illustrate the failure of new migrants to Sweden, which has one of the most generous welfare states on earth, to find real work while the vast majority remain totally unemployed. The number reflects those migrants who have been in the Employment Service’s establishment programme for at least 90 days and is down from 2018 which saw 6.6 per cent of migrants in work not subsidised by the government, Swedish broadcaster SVT reports.
The rate for migrants employed in jobs that are subsidised was much higher in 2019 at 24.5 per cent. Such jobs include start-up businesses as well as so-called “extra services” which generally include positions in the public sphere or in non-profit companies.
Staffan Johansson, Head of Unit at the Employment Service, said that the decrease in migrants employed in any job after 90 days, just 31 per cent, could be explained by a “downturn in the economy” and said that work on extra services had been halted as well.
“The extra services have proven to be very effective for this target group, which has led them to a greater extent to come to work after having an extra service,” he said.
Migrant unemployment rates are consistently much higher than those of native-born Swedes, with many reports showing the migrant rate being several times that of natives.
According to Statistics Sweden’s integration database for health insurance and labour market studies (LISA), around 90 per cent of the migrants who arrived at the height of the 2015 migrant crisis and gain permanent residency status are unemployed.
Migrant unemployment numbers are unlikely to dramatically increase in the near future as Sweden’s general unemployment rate has been rising for several months. October Eurostat figures put the country’s unemployment rate at 24th out of the now 27 EU member states.
The situation shows no signs of improving this year either, with Swedish bank Handelsbanken stating that the country shows weak signs of growth and expects unemployment rates to remain high.
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