The Inquiry on a needs-based work permit system is set to deliver its conclusions to Maria Malmer Stenergard at a press conference at 2pm on Thursday afternoon, the minister’s press secretary Erik Engström, confirmed, although he said the exact time of the press conference might still change. 

“We are not going to have a list of professions in our conclusions,” the inquiry’s secretary, Ulrika Mossberg, told the Local. “We will propose a system which can determine how certain professions, which do not have a particularly high salary but which are still required, can be excused from the salary requirement.” 

Sweden’s government changed the instructions given to the “Inquiry on a needs-based work permit system” in February last year, calling for it to develop “proposals for measures that tighten the conditions for labour immigration”, with the starting point that work permits should in normal cases “only be granted for work which has a salary level equivalent to the median salary”. 

Sweden’s median salary was 34,200 kronor in 2022, meaning the new proposal will make the minimum salary for a work permit significantly higher than the the 27,360 kronor threshold which came into force last November. 

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The inquiry had been launched by the former Social Democrat-led government in June 2022, with a remit to look into reinstating the system of labour market testing, under which unions worked with employer organisations to agree a list of skills and jobs which are in demand. 

Mossberg said that the terms of the inquiry’s instructions meant that its chair, the judge Ann-Jeanette Eriksson, could not question the government’s proposal to raise the minimum salary to the median salary. 

“It should be close to the median salary,” she said, “but maybe we have some small possibility to suggest minor adjustments.” 

While representatives from the Justice Department have been part of a group of stakeholders kept briefed on the inquiry’s progress, Mossberg said that the press conference would mark the first time Malmer Stenergard will have seen the recommendations in full.     

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Once the inquiry is delivered, it will open the way for the government to push forward with its plans to bring in a median salary for work permits, drafting proposals which will then be sent out to consultation before a bill is submitted to parliament. 

The new work permit salary threshold is likely to come into force in early 2025.