Labour Market
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Iceland's new labour market policy focuses on young men
(Nov 12, 2012) Iceland is developing a labour market policy for the period leading up to 2020, the first such policy the country has ever had. There are more people with low education in Iceland than elsewhere in Europe. Experts say the most important thing now is to develop a strategy for educating young men.
Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson: I believe the future is Nordic
(Nov 12, 2012) As the EU focuses intensively on the Euro and other economic problems, it has never been more important to intensify Nordic cooperation says the new President of the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO), Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson. Soon he and the LO leadership set off on a Nordic tour to see LO colleagues, starting off in Norway. “We are among the world’s most competitive countries, and if we could share our strengths we could become a cutting edge region,” he says.
Culture increasingly important for employment
(Oct 14, 2012) Culture plays an increasingly important role in employment. Cultural and creative trades employ five million people in Europe and represent 3.3 percent of the total EU economy. Employment in cultural occupations also grows three times faster than the rest of the economy. Both in the EU and in the Nordic region culture is being highlighted as a creative catalyst which can help create competitiveness and employment within the wider economy.
One in four Icelanders in creative jobs
(Oct 14, 2012) The culture, entertainment and experience industry is increasingly important in Iceland. The country’s single most important cultural industry is music. Many jobs are also created when US producers come to Iceland to shoot their films. Icelandic computer games do well abroad and the country has renewed its export of literature after an 800 year long break. Culture is so deeply rooted in Icelandic identity that Icelanders themselves fail to realise how important it is.
How to increase equality in Norway
(Oct 11, 2012) From next year Norway increases parental leave to 49 weeks. Yet months of daddy leave and nursery places for all children do not automatically make for a less gender segregated labour market nor does it make the male dominance in top jobs disappear, warns Professor Hege Skjeie, who has been heading the largest report on equality in Norway so far.
Nordic worry over EU internal market package
(Oct 08, 2012) The European Commission’s proposal for how to apply the EU directive on the posting of workers must not limit our powers to control foreign companies! That was the unified message from government officials, authority representatives, the social partners and researchers from all Nordic countries when they met in Oslo to discuss how to deal with what remains of the the so-called internal market package.
Challenges to welfare state at top of ministers’ in tray
(Sep 20, 2012) Youth unemployment has high political priority in the Nordic region. At the latest Nordic Council of Ministers meeting, labour ministers agreed to encourage employers to take on some of the responsibility for young people who don’t work and who are not in education. The Nordic countries also agreed to cooperate on ways to handle the consequences of labour immigration - both in terms of scope and the risks of social dumping. These were key issues during the ministers‘ meeting, where Svalbard’s Arctic surroundings and cultural heritage also played an important role.
Finland’s comprehensive social guarantee for young people
(Sep 20, 2012) The Finnish government is rolling out a comprehensive programme aimed at young people. The social guarantee aims to offer all under-25s and all newly educated under-30s a job, study place, apprenticeship or rehabilitation within three months of the young person becoming unemployed.
Catapulted into work?
(Sep 20, 2012) A youth project in Åland called Catapult is aiming to integrate unemployed youths into the labour market. The name might sound a bit more dramatic than what actually faces its target group of 16 to 24 year olds. But it does say something about Nordic politicians’s expectations.
New drive to get young unemployed Danes into education and jobs
(Sep 20, 2012) The Danish government launches another youth package to offer education to nearly 100,000 young people on benefits - many of whom have no further education at all. Meanwhile the effects of previous youth packages are beginning to materialise.
Emergency rescue plan for Denmark’s long-term unemployed
(Sep 10, 2012) The debate over Danish unemployment benefit rules carries on despite political action.
Editorial: Can apps open the door to a new working life?
(May 22, 2012) The mobile telephone is one of the best examples of Nordic cooperation there is. The use of the same standards across Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden created a market which was big enough to allow companies like Nokia and Ericsson a head start and to become major exporters.
Life after Nokia also means new opportunities
(May 22, 2012) Thousands of Nokia’s former employees have been forced to rethink their futures as the company sheds jobs. In Finland many of them hope to start their own business.
Everybody wants and app - but what for?
(May 22, 2012) “Mobile telephone apps mean new ways of working as we’ll be able to access systems from anywhere and companies will start using mobiles more and more as a tool,” says Elin Lundström, managing director at app developer and IT company Decuria in Stockholm.
The IT revolution’s third wave
(May 22, 2012) The development of smartphones is changing many people’s lives. Yet universal online access is only one part of the new IT revolution which will also have a big impact on working life. Smartphones and tablets became really powerful tools when Apple allowed anyone to develop the apps these devices run.
Palle Ørbæk signals new course for Europe’s work environment policies
(May 22, 2012) Making sure people can work to their best capacity should be a top priority when improving working environments says Palle Ørbæk, director general at the Danish Research Centre for the Working Environment. Ten other top European working environment researchers are backing him.
Danes must tighten their belts
(May 22, 2012) Danes must work for longer to create new jobs and to secure a balanced budget by 2020. That’s the main conclusion of the Government’s 2020 plan for the Danish economy. The plan is a platform for the government’s negotiations on its comprehensive reform programme which includes changes to cash aid, flexijobs, early retirement, taxation and tri-partite negotiations between the government and the social partners.
Editorial: The unacceptable consequences of border obstacles
(Apr 15, 2012) A long and comprehensive job to find and solve the key problems met by Nordic citizens working in a different Nordic country is nearing its end.
All problems are solvable - but new obstacles often emerge faster than old ones are removed
(Apr 15, 2012) Border obstacles are words which don’t really do the issue justice. Getting across borders is the least of Nordic citizens‘ problems - they’ve enjoyed a common labour market and passport-free travel since 1954.
"It is incredibly nice to be able to help one or more people get a good life, regain their self respect and a good social position that they are happy with."
Bjarne Brøndbo, rock star, entrepreneur and employer
- Searchword
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Labour Market in Scandinavian
Danish: arbejdsmarked
Norwegian: arbeidsmarked
Swedish: arbetsmarknad
- Labour Market in focus:
