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Working in Sweden: five reasons to protect your income

Uncertainty is a fact of life even at the best of times and much of what we thought was certain or secure has proven to have shaky foundations over the past couple of years. Long-term unemployment in Sweden recently hit a record level of 190,000, while tens of millions of jobs have been lost worldwide due to the pandemic.

Published: 22 November 2021 09:13 CET
Working in Sweden: five reasons to protect your income
Photo: Getty Images

While unemployment insurance is compulsory in most of the EU and the UK, it’s partially voluntary in Sweden. To be entitled to the full income insurance benefits available in Sweden, you have to join an a-kassa, an unemployment fund that pays income-related insurance benefits.

Little wonder that Eva Nordmark, Sweden’s Minister for Employment, encouraged all workers in Sweden to join an a-kassa unemployment fund during the pandemic. The Local has partnered with Akademikernas a-kassa, Sweden’s biggest provider for university graduates, to give you five reasons why it still makes sense to take her advice, whatever the future brings.

Safeguard yourself against unforeseen events by joining Akademikernas a-kassa today

1. Flexibility

Sweden is well-known for providing a generous social safety net. But few expats arrive with much idea of how it all works in practice. A-kassa funds are a crucial part of the Swedish system, providing members with income-related unemployment benefits when needed. You’re eligible to join if you’re a university graduate and currently work – or have previously worked – in Sweden, the EU, EEA or Switzerland.

Akademikernas a-kassa, one of the biggest funds, is specifically for people who graduated from higher education. Your profession is irrelevant. If you have a bachelor’s degree and work in Sweden, the fund is for you. Nor does it matter if you change your line of work or set up your own business; you can stay with the fund for your whole career. If you are working and currently studying for a bachelor’s degree, you can also join now.

2. Affordability

It may be designed for people with above-average earning potential – but that doesn’t mean it’s expensive. The fee to join Akademikernas a-kassa is 130 kronor per month. Everyone pays the same rate because the fund has over 750,000 members and unemployment among them is low.

It is sometimes necessary to be in an a-kassa to get a loan, for instance for a mortgage from a bank, meaning you may get even more value for your money.

Photo: Getty Image

3. Generosity

As of January 2021, you need to have been a member for one year before you can claim compensation based on your income. You can receive up to 80 percent of your previous salary with a ceiling of 1,200 kronor per day before tax (up from 910 kronor per day before the pandemic) for the first 100 days. If you had an average monthly salary of at least 33,000 kronor in the last year, you qualify for the maximum. From day 101, the maximum compensation is 1,000 kronor before tax per day.

Benefits paid to qualifying members now begin from day one, rather than day seven, as they have in the past.

You can receive payment for five days a week over a period of 300 days – that’s around 14 months. If you are a parent with children under 18, the maximum period is 450 days. Everyone who qualifies receives income-related benefits without any means-testing. 

Get peace of mind and protect yourself and your loved ones with Akademikernas a-kassa

4. Covering the self-employed

Every economy needs its entrepreneurs. But in times of insecurity, the self-employed often feel they face extra burdens. This is no secret in forward-thinking Sweden; the self-employed have been entitled to join an a-kassa for almost 50 years.

As a member of Akademikernas a-kassa, if you start a business and it does not go as hoped your unemployment pay can be based on the income of your previous job (up to 24 months after leaving). 

5. Nobody knows the future

As we have seen over the last two years, the world – and our own personal circumstances – can change very quickly. There is every reason for individuals, as well as nations, to want to be prepared.

Looking further ahead, being a member of an a-kassa could offer you protection in all kinds of unexpected or unplanned situations. With Akademikernas a-kassa, you can even claim during time between jobs if you take things into your own hands some day and choose to switch careers. 

Take a step towards stability and security in uncertain times, by joining Akademikernas a-kassa

For members

PROPERTY

How much does it cost to rent an apartment in Stockholm?

The cost of renting an apartment directly in Stockholm has risen over the last year, but the price of sublets is stable or falling. Here's how much you can now expect to pay in Sweden's biggest city.

Published: 7 September 2023 08:21 CEST
Updated: 7 September 2023 12:25 CEST
How much does it cost to rent an apartment in Stockholm?

Sweden’s housing market is tightly controlled, with rents from the big private and municipal landlords set in negotiations with the Swedish Tenants’ Association, or Hyresgästsförening. Subletting rents – theoretically at least – are supposed to cover the costs of the apartment without making a profit.

So far this year, the hikes agreed with the Tenants’ Association have been well below the headline rate of inflation, meaning rents are falling in Sweden in real terms. The latest statistics on sublets, meanwhile, indicate that, in many areas, rents have been falling even in nominal terms – without being adjusted for inflation.

“In the wake of economic crisis, interest rate hikes and inflation, more and more Swedes are seeing the need to rent out part or all of their property,” explained Fredrik Strömsten, chief executive of Qasa, which runs Blocket’s property listings site, in a report in April.

There had, he said, been an “explosive increase in the number of sublets”. 

How much does it cost to rent an apartment in Stockholm directly? 

The most recent rental numbers from Statistics Sweden data back to the end of 2022.

These show that while upmarket areas like Östermalm and Södermalm are the most expensive areas to rent in, so-called “first-hand apartments” (apartments rented directly via the municipality’s housing queue) there are only about a third more expensive than much less desirable areas of the city. 

These rates, however, give quite a misleading idea of the real cost of living in these parts of the city.

With queues for rental apartments in these areas running to longer than ten years, most foreigners coming to the capital are unlikely to ever get a chance to rent at such rates, and we’ll get to that further down in the article.

Nonetheless, rents across Sweden are rising more slowly than inflation and Stockholm is no exception. According to Hem & Hyra, the news site run by the Tenants’ Association, the big private and municipal landlords proposed hiking rents by an average of 9.04 percent at the start of the year, but by the end of February the Tenants’ Association had managed to bargain this down to 4.22 percent.

So if you’re lucky enough to get to rent an apartment directly from a municipal or private landlord, you can expect to pay about 5 percent more than the numbers in the table above. 

READ ALSO: 

What are rents like outside central Stockholm? 

If you decide to live outside central Stockholm, rent can be considerably cheaper, but it can also more expensive if you live in the desirable municipalities such as Täby, which is home to the Danderyd area where many of Stockholm’s richest have their villas.  

How much does it cost to sublet an apartment in Stockholm? 

As a foreigner coming to Sweden, you are much more likely to end up subletting an apartment, using sites like Blocket or The Local’s own rental platform. 

Although Sweden’s rental rules are designed to prevent subletting for profit, in reality you will often find yourself paying a hefty premium.

But according to the most recent statistics from Blocket and Qasa, sublet rents are stable or falling as cash-strapped renters are forced to sublet rooms or their entire apartments.

The number of sublet announcements on their platform for Stockholm was 78.8 percent higher in the first three months of this years than it was in the first three months of 2022.

As you might expect, sublets in Norrmalm, Östermalm and Södermalm are the priciest, going for roughly double what you would pay for directly leasing an apartment in these areas.  

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