International Organization for Migration (IOM)

share of employment has halved since 1965, and is now about 15 per cent. The
number of persons employed in agriculture, forestry and fishing has also decreased.
Meanwhile, employment in services has increased and now accounts for about half
of all employment.
The Swedish economy grew very rapidly in 2010 and for large parts of 2011. Both
domestic demand and exports have been important in driving the recovery forward
after the financial crisis in 2008–2009. The labour market in Sweden has coped
well, considering the very turbulent economic developments in the Euro zone. The
number of employed is actually higher than in September 2008, which was the month
when the financial crisis occurred. Towards the end of 2011, however, growth in the
Swedish economy slowed down and the economy is expected to become distinctly
weaker in 2012.
Table 9.1: Employment rate, 16-64 years, by country of birth and sex. 2005, 2008, 2010–
2011, (%)
Swedish born
Foreign born
Total
2005 2008 2010 2011
men 77.8 79.5 78.0 79.3
women 74.2 76.2 74.8 76.5
total 76.1 77.9 76.5 77.9
men 64.8 70.4 67.6 68.9
women 58.7 59.0 56.5 57.9
total 61.6 64.4 61.8 63.2
men 75.9 78.1 76.4 77.6
women 71.8 73.2 71.5 73.0
total 73.9 75.7 74.0 75.3
Source: Statistics Sweden, Labour Force Survey.
The economic decline in 2007 and 2008 led to a decrease in the total employment
between 2008 and 2010. Job losses were concentrated in the manufacturing and
industry sectors. Nevertheless, the number of employed foreign born continued to
rise during this period. At the same time the number of foreign born who were
unemployed or outside the workforce grew even more. This has been a general trend
over the last couple of years. The large immigration has led to both an increase of
foreign-born employment (145,000 since 2005), unemployment (40,000 since 2005)
and inactivity (185,000 since 2005). During 2011, the number of employed persons
between the ages of 16 and 64 increased by 96,000, which corresponds to an increase
in the level of employment of 1.3 percentage points. Foreign born accounted for
36,000 of the increase. Unemployment fell considerably amongst the native born
while it continued to rise amongst the foreign born.
There is a large gap in employment rates between the native born and foreign born. In
2011, 77.9 per cent of the native born between 16 and 64 were employed, compared
to 63.2 per cent of the foreign born. The difference is 14.7 percentage points, the
country studIes – SWEDEN
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