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WORK PERMITS

IN NUMBERS: How will foreigners be affected by Sweden’s new work permit threshold?

Sweden's higher work permit threshold came into force on November 1st. Here are the numbers showing the extent to which foreigners will be affected.

Published: 1 November 2023 11:27 CET
Updated: 5 November 2023 07:59 CET
IN NUMBERS: How will foreigners be affected by Sweden's new work permit threshold?
Sweden's restaurant industry is expected to be particularly hard hit by the new work permit rules. Photo: Tomas Oneborg/SvD/TT

63,447

The number of non-EU residents currently in Sweden on work permits.

80 percent

The new salary threshold is 80 percent of Sweden’s median salary according to the most recent figures from Statistics Sweden at the time of application. On June 20th, 2023, Sweden’s median salary was 34,200 kronor a month.

27,360 kronor

The new salary threshold. More than double the old threshold, which was 13,000 kronor.

100 percent 

The government plans to raise the salary threshold to 100 percent of the median salary in the future.

November 1st

The date at which the new work permit salary threshold came into effect for new work permit applications, applications for extensions, and previous applications which have not yet been concluded.

14,991

The number of current work permit holders who don’t meet the new work permit salary threshold.

24,117

The number of work permits issued in Sweden last year. From January to September 2023, the Migration Agency issued 22,847 work permits.

2 years

Work permits in Sweden are issued for a maximum of two years at a time. During the first two years, applicants are tied to a specific job and a specific employer. After two years, they can switch employer, but will need to apply for a new permit if they want to change jobs.

2,200 kronor

The application fee for work permits and work permit extensions. Some occupations pay a lower fee of 2,000 or 1,500 kronor.

Accompanying family members also pay a fee –  1,500 kronor for adults and 750 kronor for children.

Three weeks

The amount of time you have to appeal a rejected work permit application.

One job

It’s not possible to meet the work permit salary requirement by working two (or more) jobs. Your work permit is individual and tied to a specific job, so you will only be offered a work permit if you have a job which fulfills all the requirements by itself.

Between four and 15 months

The time it takes for 75 percent of first-time work permit applicants to receive a response on their application. It varies depending on the industry.

Extension applications have longer waiting times, going up to 18 months for sectors with a 15-month wait for first-time applications, or a slightly lower 15 months for branches with a four month wait for first-time applications.

Member comments

  1. I’m curious about people not meeting the required salary level. Who are they? In which sector are they working?
    Is there any data showing if the local Swedes can compensate for that lost of workforce if those people are forced to leave Sweden?

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For members

WORK PERMITS

Business leaders: Work permit threshold ‘has no place in Swedish labour model’

Sweden's main business group has attacked a proposal to exempt some jobs from a new minimum salary for work permits, saying it is "unacceptable" political interference in the labour model and risks seriously affecting national competitiveness.

Published: 25 April 2024 17:37 CEST
Updated: 26 April 2024 06:11 CEST
Business leaders: Work permit threshold 'has no place in Swedish labour model'

The Confederation of Swedish Enterprise said in its response to the government’s consultation, submitted on Thursday afternoon, that it not only opposed the proposal to raise the minimum salary for a work permit to Sweden’s median salary (currently 34,200 kronor a month), but also opposed plans to exempt some professions from the higher threshold. 

“To place barriers in the way of talent recruitment by bringing in a highly political salary threshold in combination with labour market testing is going to worsen the conditions for Swedish enterprise in both the short and the long term, and risks leading to increased fraud and abuse,” the employer’s group said.   

The group, which represents businesses across most of Sweden’s industries, has been critical of the plans to further raise the salary threshold for work permits from the start, with the organisation’s deputy director general, Karin Johansson, telling The Local this week that more than half of those affected by the higher threshold would be skilled graduate recruits Swedish businesses sorely need.   

But the fact that it has not only rejected the higher salary threshold, but also the proposed system of exemptions, will nonetheless come as a blow to Sweden’s government, and particular the Moderate Party led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, which has long claimed to be the party of business. 

The confederation complained that the model proposed in the conclusions of the government inquiry published in February would give the government and political parties a powerful new role in setting salary conditions, undermining the country’s treasured system of collective bargaining. 

The proposal for the higher salary threshold, was, the confederation argued, “wrong in principle” and did “not belong in the Swedish labour market”. 

“That the state should decide on the minimum salary for certain foreign employees is an unacceptable interference in the Swedish collective bargaining model, where the parties [unions and employers] weigh up various needs and interested in negotiations,” it wrote. 

In addition, the confederation argued that the proposed system where the Sweden Public Employment Service and the Migration Agency draw up a list of exempted jobs, which would then be vetted by the government, signified the return of the old system of labour market testing which was abolished in 2008.

“The government agency-based labour market testing was scrapped because of it ineffectiveness, and because it was unreasonable that government agencies were given influence over company recruitment,” the confederation wrote. 

“The system meant long handling times, arbitrariness, uncertainty for employers and employees, as well as an indirect union veto,” it added. “Nothing suggests it will work better this time.” 

For a start, it said, the Public Employment Service’s list of professions was inexact and outdated, with only 179 professions listed, compared to 430 monitored by Statistics Sweden. This was particularly the case for new skilled roles within industries like battery manufacturing. 

“New professions or smaller professions are not caught up by the classification system, which among other things is going to make it harder to recruit in sectors which are important for the green industrial transition,” the confederation warned. 

Rather than implement the proposals outlined in the inquiry’s conclusions, it concluded, the government should instead begin work on a new national strategy for international recruitment. 

“Sweden instead needs a national strategy aimed at creating better conditions for Swedish businesses to be able to attract, recruit and retain international competence.”

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