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WORKING IN DENMARK

The new job titles which could get you a residency permit in Denmark

Denmark has nearly doubled the number of job titles on its two positive lists of in-demand professions or trades eligible for work permits.

Published: 3 January 2024 16:54 CET
The new job titles which could get you a residency permit in Denmark
Blomsterdekoratør, or floral designer, is on the positive list of skilled trades this January: Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix

The Danish Agency for International Recruitment and Integration (SIRI) at the start of this year released a new “Positive List for People with a Higher Education”, which more than doubled the number of eligible job titles to 72 from the 31 which were on the list valid from July 1st until the end of 2023. 

The number of job titles in the “Positive List for Skilled Work“, meanwhile, has increased from 35 to 38, with 18 new jobs added and 15 jobs removed .

The new skilled jobs are: map and surveying technician, draughtsman, paramedic, accountant’s assistant,  sales consultant, sales and account manager, customs officer, real estate agent, property manager, medical secretary,  floral decorator, human resources assistant, bricklayer, welder, bodywork metal worker, sheet metal and construction blacksmith, shipbuilder, service technician for iron and metal, bicycle mechanic, industrial mechanic, and precision mechanic. 

The new lists will apply automatically to anyone seeking a work permit between January 1st this year and the next time the list is updated at the end of June.

SIRI has committed in this January’s list to keeping all of the jobs for People with Higher Education on the list until June 2025, September 2024 or December 2025, depending on the job. 

For people from countries outside the EU, the positive lists represent one of the best routes to a job in Denmark, with the first list outlining the qualified professions in demand in Denmark, and the second the skilled trades where there is a shortage of qualified labour.

If someone from outside the EU has been offered a job in Denmark in any of the professions on these lists, they can apply for a work permit through the scheme.

Siri updates the two lists twice a year on January 1st and July 1st on the basis of the Arbejdsmarkedsbalancen or “labour market balance”, prepared by the the Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment, also biannually. 

The Arbejdsmarkedsbalancen lists which job titles are currently experiencing severe labour shortages, labour shortages, which are employable, and which are less employable. 

You can find a comparison of the positive lists for skilled labour from July 2023 and January 2024, spread over three pages, here: 

And you can find a comparison of the Positive List for People with a Higher Education in July 2023 and January 2024 here: 

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WORKING IN DENMARK

Why are Danish experts recommending closure of all job centres?

Recommendations made by an expert commission to the government on employment and welfare advocate for closure of all municipal job centres.

Published: 24 June 2024 17:32 CEST
Why are Danish experts recommending closure of all job centres?

Denmark’s job centres, which are responsible for administration of social welfare benefits for people seeking employment and of facilitating training and work placements under welfare lows, should be closed according to recommendations handed to the government on Monday.

Additionally, over half of the current rules related to unemployment benefits should be scrapped and 9 in 10 sanctions for people who fail to comply with criteria such as attending meetings or applying for a set number of jobs.

Denmark has two broad tiers for those out of work: dagpenge, which provides an income calculated on the person’s tax payments while in employment, and the more basic kontanthjælp.

Dagpenge is available to people who a paying members of a semi-private uninsurance provider called an Arbejdsløshedskasse or A-kasse, while kontanthjælp is available to everyone.

Both groups must comply with legal requirements related to job searching in order to receive the benefits they qualify for – these are administered by municipal job centres.

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When the coalition government took office at the end of 2022 it stated that it wanted to save three billion kroner annually by reforming the municipal unemployment area and improving its efficiency – specifically by targeting job centres.

This has led to an expert group, appointed by the government, making six specific requirements – those announce on Monday.

The government is not obliged to follow the recommendations.

But the expert group says there is much to gain from closing job centres.

“There’s great potential in replacing the current one-size-fits-all system with a new approach where individual needs are in focus,” group chairperson Claus Thustrup Kreiner said in a press statement.

The six broad recommendations are as follows:

  • Fewer target groups and special rules
  • Individual programmes
  • More balanced sanctions system
  • Abolish job centres and introduce free organisation at municipalities
  • Give more influence to A-kasse and private interests
  • Results, not system-based approach

|Source: DR

“Our report includes recommendations for the biggest reform of the jobseeking area ever, and will make the system cheaper, simpler and more dignified without weakening employment,” Kreiner said.

The national confederation for trade unions, Fagbevægelsens Hovedorganisation (FH), criticised the costcutting element of the recommendations in comments to broadcaster DR, and also said it would reduce the options and rights of jobseekers.

“I thought this was about giving unemployed people more freedom to decide what they need,” FH chairperson Nanna Højlund said.

“But the expert group clearly sees it as being about allowing municipalities to do exactly what they want,” she said.

The Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) welcomed the proposals.

“The expert group has proposed a simplification of employment with fewer rules and benefit categories and with a large saving” DI deputy director Steen Nielsen said in a statement.

“That is a good idea because it’s difficult to run a job centre efficiently with the many different criteria and rules that must be met for each of the many categories,” he added.

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