by Caitlin Kenney

Jenny from Sweden wrote this letter after hearing our podcast on global frustration. She writes:

Being a little behind on the podcast, I only just heard the story about the Swedish metal workers union. In the show, it sounded as if the union had agreed to less pay for the same work. Instead, they agreed to reduce the number of hours worked, essentially giving their workers forced unpaid leave. This is still very uncommon in Sweden, but it's not quite as bad as it sounded on the show.

 

As for the younger teachers saying that they want the older teachers to be laid off instead - one of the things that's very different in Sweden is that you can't just fire anyone you like even when you're forced to reduce the work force. There's a law that basically says that the last one hired is the first one to go. The intent of this law is to make sure that a company that has had a loyal employee working for decades can't just fire that person when they get older and maybe somewhat less productive. In mass layoffs, however, it has the effect of keeping older people while firing younger ones, so you end up with a work force consisting only of people over fifty or so, and that kind of homogeneity is probably not very good for the organization in the long run.

This "employment security" (my translation) is also why the Swedish credit system is based on income rather than credit history - once you have a job you can't lose it just because your boss dislikes your hairstyle or whatever. Some people say that this means people are less likely to change jobs, since the most recent hire is the one who'll get fired first in a downturn, but the flip side is that you can make better long-term economic decisions since you don't have to worry that maybe the next month you won't have a salary to pay your rent or interest rate.

The unemployment rate for young people in Sweden is four times higher than that for adults. In 2007, 19.2 percent of the country's young people were unemployed.