Every third firm has moved jobs out of the country in the last three years and 37 percent of industrial firms have moved operations.
The report shows a significant increase on a previous survey, undertaken by Sif four years ago, which indicated that every fourth firm had moved operations overseas.
The report shows that at least a third of the firms moving jobs out of Sweden have not conducted any form of evaluation.
“It is a serious problem that so many decisions to move operations are not evaluated. Badly grounded decisions threaten the companies and, by extension, the jobs of Unionen’s members,” said Åsa Johansson, an economist at Unionen.
Johansson argued that while exporting jobs can seem on the surface to be a quick and simple solution to a company’s problems it can in fact lead to disorganization and negative consequences for the staff that remain.
“Companies should take their responsibility by working with preventive measures such as investing in operations and developing the skills of their staff. It is important to analyze the effects of a move and the available alternatives,” she said.
According to the survey, the main reason behind the export of jobs is to cut labour costs by moving to lower cost countries.
Manufacturing, staff administration, IT support and finance are the most common types of operations that are moved.