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These are the places in Sweden where job centres are set to close

Sweden's national employment agency Arbetsförmedlingen is closing more than half of its local job centres across the country over the next two years.

Published: 28 March 2019 17:01 CET
Updated: 29 March 2019 08:04 CET
These are the places in Sweden where job centres are set to close
A job centre in Boden, one of the sites slated for closure. Photo: Petra Älvstrand/TT

The decision was announced earlier in March, as The Local reported at the time, just a month after the agency said it would lay off around 4,500 of its staff.

And on Thursday, it announced the municipalities where job centres were expected to close in 2019 or 2020 (see list at the end of this article), with a total of 132 centres affected.

Three municipalities were set to lose more than one job centre, with three each closing in Gothenburg and Stockholm and two set to close in Älvdalen in central-west Sweden.

In the affected areas, the employment agency is expected to use the premises of municipalities, and work out of citizens' service centres home to other national agencies.

READ ALSO: Everything you need to know if you lose your job in Sweden

Meanwhile, a total of 106 offices would remain open around the country, with varying opening hours. In some smaller offices, employees would travel there only for pre-booked appointments with local customers.

“Reducing the office network is necessary. We are in the middle of a restructuring process [requiring job cuts for] 4,500 employees due to the budget conditions we have for the year. We cannot carry out such a large staff reduction without making changes to the number of offices,” the agency's director-general Mikael Sjöberg said in a statement.

The agency also noted that a growing number of customers choose to get in contact with Arbetsförmedlingen digitally, and have initial meetings over an online chat service, phone or video calls.

FIND A JOB: Browse thousands of English-language jobs in Sweden

Here are all the municipalities where Arbetsförmedlingen plans to close its job centres:

Ale
Alvesta
Aneby
Arboga
Askersund
Berg
Bjurholm
Bjuv
Boden
Borgholm
Bromölla
Bräcke
Burlöv
Båstad
Dals-Ed
Dorotea
Eksjö
Emmaboda
Enköping
Fagersta
Falkenberg
Falköping
Falun
Finspång
Flen
Forshaga
Grums
Gothenburg (three centres)
Hagfors
Hallsberg
Hallstahammar
Hedemora
Hofors
Hylte
Hällefors
Härjedalen
Härnösand
Härryda
Hässleholm
Höganäs
Karlskoga
Kil
Kinda
Klippan
Kristinehamn
Krokom
Kumla
Kungsbacka
Laholm
Landskrona
Laxå
Leksand
Lerum
Lessebo
Ljusnarsberg
Lund
Malmö
Malung-Sälen
Malå
Mariestad
Mark
Markaryd
Mellerud
Mullsjö
Munkedal
Munkfors
Mönsterås
Mörbylånga
Nora
Nordanstig
Nordmaling
Norsjö
Nybro
Ockelbo
Olofström
Orsa
Ovanåker
Partille
Piteå
Ragunda
Robertsfors
Ronneby
Sigtuna
Skara
Sorsele
Sotenäs
Stenungsund
Stockholm (three centres)
Storfors
Storuman
Strängnäs
Sunne
Svedala
Svenljunga
Sävsjö
Söderhamn
Sölvesborg
Tanum
Timrå
Tingsryd
Tomelilla
Torsby
Tranemo
Trelleborg
Tyresö
Täby
Ulricehamn
Upplands Väsby
Uppvidinge
Vaggeryd
Valdemarsvik
Vansbro
Vindeln
Vårgårda
Vänersborg
Vännäs
Ånge
Årjäng
Åsele
Åstorp
Åtvidaberg
Älvdalen (two centres)
Ängelholm
Örkelljunga
Östhammar
Östra Göinge
Övertorneå

 

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WORKING IN SWEDEN

‘Reassess your cultural background’: Key tips for foreign job hunters in Sweden

Many foreigners living in Sweden want to stay in the country but struggle to find a job, despite having relevant qualifications. The Local spoke to three experts for their advice.

Published: 7 May 2024 09:00 CEST
'Reassess your cultural background': Key tips for foreign job hunters in Sweden

One international worker who found it hard to land her first job in Sweden is Amanda Herzog, who eventually founded Intertalents in Sweden with the aim of helping other immigrants find work in the country.

Herzog originally came to Sweden to study at Jönköping University and decided to stay after graduating.

“I thought it would take three months, maybe six months to find a job, I was prepared for that,” she told The Local during a live recording of our Sweden in Focus podcast held as part of Talent Talks, an afternoon of discussions at the Stockholm Business Region offices on how to attract and retain foreign workers in Sweden.

“What happened was it took over 13 months and 800 applications to actually get a job in my industry, within marketing.”

During this time, Herzog was getting multiple interviews a month, but was not getting any further in the process, despite showing her CV to Swedish recruiters for feedback.

“They were baffled as well,” she said. “By the time I landed my dream job, I had to go outside of the typical advice and experiment, and figure out how I actually can get hired. By the time I got hired, I realised what actually works isn’t really being taught.”

‘Reassess your cultural background’

Often, those who come to Herzog for help have sent out hundreds of CVs and are unsure what their next steps should be.

“My first piece of advice is to stop for a second,” she said. “Reassess your cultural background and how it fits into Sweden.”

Herzog, for example, discovered she was interviewing in “the American way”.

In the US, when asked to tell an interviewer about yourself, you’d be expected to discuss your career history – how many people have you managed? Did sales improve while you were working there? – while Swedes are more likely to want to know about you as a person and why you want to work in a specific role for their company in particular.

“A lot of people don’t know this, so imagine all of the other cultural things that they’re doing differently that they learned in their country is normal,” Herzog adds.

“Just start with learning, because it could be that you don’t need to change very much, you are qualified, you just need to connect with the Swedish way of doing things.”

 
 
 
 
 
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Networking is important

“Don’t hesitate to reach out for help and guidance,” said Laureline Vallée, an environmental engineer from France who recently found a job in Sweden after moving here nine months ago with her partner, who got a job as a postdoc at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

“You tend to insulate yourself and consider yourself not capable, but you’re not less capable than you were in your home country, you just need to explain it to the employers.”

Another tip is to network as much as you can, Vallée said.

“Networking is really important here in Sweden, so just go for it, connect with people in the same field.”

This could be through networks like Stockholm Akademiska Forum’s Dual Career Network, which helps the accompanying partners or spouses of foreign workers find a job in Sweden, or through other connections, like neighbours, friends, or people you meet through hobbies, for example.

Make a clear profile for yourself

Another common issue is that applicants are not presenting themselves clearly to recruiters, Stockholm Akademiska Forum’s CEO, Maria Fogelström Kylberg, told The Local.

“If you’re sending 600 applications without an answer, something is wrong. We have seen many people looking for jobs working in a supermarket, and the next application is a managing director post,” she said. “You have to decide ‘who am I? What do I want to do?’, you have to profile yourself in a clear way.”

This could be editing down your CV so you’re not rejected for being overqualified, or just thinking more closely about how you present yourself to a prospective employer.

“Which of my skills are transferable? How can I be of use to this company? Not what they can do for me, but what problem can I solve with my competence?”

Job hunters should also not be afraid of applying for a job which lists Swedish as a requirement in the job description, Fogelström Kylberg said.

“Sometimes if I see an ad for a job and I have a perfect candidate in front of me, I call the company and say ‘I have a perfect candidate, but you need them to speak Swedish’, they then say ‘no, that’s not so important’. This is not so unusual at all so don’t be afraid of calling them to say ‘do I really need perfect Swedish?’”

Listen to the full interview with Maria Fogelström Kylberg, Amanda Herzog and Laureline Vallée in The Local’s Sweden in Focus Extra podcast for Membership+ subscribers.

Interview by Paul O’Mahony, article by Becky Waterton

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