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WORKING IN DENMARK

Danish businesses repeat call for foreign workers amid labour shortage

Local authorities and a major business interest organisation have urged Denmark’s government to address a labour shortage.

Published: 5 August 2022 15:30 CEST
Danish businesses repeat call for foreign workers amid labour shortage
A representative for Danish municipalities said services may have to be cut if a labour shortage is not addressed. Photo by everdrop GmbH on Unsplash

Unmet demand for labour in both private businesses and the public sector has reached a crisis point, according to an appeal to the government to reach a broader labour agreement. 

Parliament must renew its efforts to find a new national compromise which will secure more labour, the National Association of Municipalities (Kommunernes Landsforening, KL) and the Confederation of Danish Industry (Dansk Industri, DI) said according to financial media Finans.

“The parties [in parliament] must be honest with voters and start a completely different and strict prioritisation of what the public sector can offer people,” mayor and KL chairperson Martin Damm told news wire Ritzau.

“Otherwise, the parties must find the labour needed for private companies to provide growth and wellbeing, and for us at municipalities to have the staff and economy to deliver the services people expect,” he said.

The municipalities will need 44,000 additional employees by 2030 due to increasing numbers of children and elderly in the population, according to KL.

Short the lack of labour persist, municipal governments could be forced to reduce the priority of services such as cleaning for elderly residents, according to Damm.

Danish businesses are finding it harder than ever to recruit staff and could hire 38,000 new workers immediately if they were available, according to DI, which represents the interests of about 19,000 Danish companies. 

Lars Sandahl Sørensen, managing director of DI, firmly believes the answer to the labour shortage lies outside Danish borders. 

“We will need many more foreigners,” Sørensen told Finans.

“It is not about getting cheap labour, but about getting people at all. We are in a situation where we do not have employees to carry out the things on green conversion that we have already decided to do, and that we would like to do on health and welfare,” he said.

Employment minister Peter Hummelgaard told Finans that the government agreed a deal on international recruitment shortly before the summer break.

READ MORE: How can you get a work permit in Denmark if you aren’t an EU national? 

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WORKING IN DENMARK

Foreign workers in Denmark ‘create 300 billion kroner of value’

Almost one in eight people in paid employment in Denmark is a foreign national, meaning workers from abroad create a huge amount of value for the country, the Confederation of Danish Industry says in a new analysis.

Published: 29 April 2024 14:51 CEST
Foreign workers in Denmark 'create 300 billion kroner of value'

Increasing employment in Denmark in recent years is due in no small part to international labour, and the high rate of international employment, couple with a continued low unemployment rate, underline the need for workers from abroad, the Confederation of Danish Industry (Dansk Industri, DI) said in a press release on Monday.

An analysis from DI based on Statistics Denmark data found that, between 2013 and 2023, the number of foreign nationals working full-time in paid employment in Denmark increased from 147,000 to 309,000.

The 2023 level is equivalent to 13 percent of overall employment in Denmark being attributable to foreign labour, DI said.

“You cannot overestimate the importance of international labour in Denmark,” DI’s deputy director Steen Nielsen said in the statement.

“If they had not been here and made the contribution they do, we’d not have been able to produce goods, treat the sick or build the amount of houses we need,” he said.

“It is good business in every way because it means our labour market and business sector is functional, but also because international colleagues are worth billions to Denmark,” he said.

International labour created some 282 billion kroner of value within the Danish economy last year, according to DI’s analysis. That is reportedly a new record and equivalent to 11 percent of the country’s total value output.

“Employment has fallen and the economy would have done the same [shrunk, ed.] ifwe had not had our international colleagues. We owe them a big thenk you for their contributions to Denmark’s progress,” Nielsen said.

The DI deputy director said the analysis showed the continued importance of making Denmark attractive to foreign labour.

READ ALSO: Foreign workers report increased appeal of Denmark and Copenhagen in study

“The coming years will see fewer Danes of working ages. So to retain the affluence and welfare we have today, we must continue to gratefully receive international labour,” Nielsen said.

“A simple and effective measure would be to also allow foreigners from outside of the EU to come here if they have a job offer in line with collective bargaining agreements. That would make an immediate difference,” Nielsen said with reference to the salary and other labour standards set by Denmark’s collective bargaining system.

The business representative underlined that such workers should not be allowed to stay in Denmark if their work circumstances ceased.

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