Back to Work: Sweden
Improving the Re-employment Prospects of Displaced Workers
Job displacement (involuntary job loss due to firm closure or downsizing) affects
many workers over their lifetime. Displaced workers may face long periods of unemployment
and, even when they find new jobs, tend to be paid less and have fewer benefits than
in their prior jobs. Helping them get back into good jobs quickly should be a key
goal of labour market policy. This report is the fourth in a series of reports looking
at how this challenge is being tackled in a number of OECD countries. It shows that
Sweden has been relatively successful in minimising the adverse effects of displaced
workers, manily due to the longstanding tradition of collaboration between the social
partners to share responsibility for restructuring by creating special arrangements
and practices that provide help to workers much faster that in other OECD countries.
Despite this positive institutional framework, there is room to improve policies targeted
to displaced workers as remarkable inequalities still exist in both the Swedish labour
market and in the way workers are treated.
Published on December 16, 2015
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