The Employment Service is "politically destroyed" and should be abolished. This is proposed by a working group within the Social Democrats – who point to the privatisation under Stefan Löfven's government as one of the problems.
I want a state-controlled labour market policy, says S MP Björn Wiechel.
He describes a situation where many people today get stuck in "insecure, exhausting and low-paid jobs", while companies lack personnel for high-productivity jobs.
Therefore, we want to take back control and abolish the Employment Service, make a change and do it right. This is a politically destroyed authority, says Björn Wiechel to TT.
Adult Education is Highlighted
Instead, state-controlled measures are proposed to ensure that there are employment agents locally throughout the country with a high degree of "regional self-determination". Adult education will also be an important part of getting people into long-term jobs.
How will you, by abolishing the Employment Service, succeed better in guiding people from insecure jobs to what you describe as "good" jobs?
Those who work with mediation should have a much higher degree of freedom to control measures, you must link education so that people get more measures that guide them towards these jobs. So that it's not these short, temporary fixes that are governing, but the long-term productivity goal, says Björn Wiechel.
Major Changes
The Employment Service has undergone several changes over the past decades, under governments of different colours.
In 2019, a major privatisation was carried out under the then S-MP government, as part of the January agreement with the bourgeois support parties C and L.
It has created a market where you make money from unemployment instead of combating unemployment, Björn Wiechel to TT.
He does not directly answer the question of whether it was a mistake to push through the privatisation under S rule.
We didn't settle with that then, I want to settle with it now, he says.
Welcome from the Federation of Private Enterprises
The proposal from the working group is part of the Social Democrats' work on developing new policies in several areas. It will now be presented to the party executive board, after which the party congress is expected to take a stance next spring.
The Federation of Private Enterprises welcomes the proposal to abolish the Employment Service.
"Finally, the Social Democrats understand the extent of the problem with the Employment Service. Their proposal for a solution is, however, completely the wrong way to go. By throwing out private actors, the authority would function even worse", says Benjamin Dousa, CEO of the Federation of Private Enterprises, in a press release.
