Unofficial English translation as follows:
In November 2023, Sweden raised the wage requirements for non-European individuals wishing to work in the country. The decision aimed to “…reduce the inflow of low-skilled labor migration, as in many cases these jobs could instead be performed by people already living in Sweden” (Government Offices of Sweden, 29 September 2023). The idea was that higher wage requirements would increase demand for the labor force already registered with the Swedish Public Employment Service.
The new requirement was set at 80 percent of the median wage, corresponding to a full-time monthly salary of SEK 28,480. The political plan is to raise this further in the future to 100 percent of the median wage. By comparison, the collective agreement with the Property Workers’ Union (Fastighetsanställdas Förbund) sets the monthly salary for a full-time cleaner without prior experience at SEK 26,979 for the same work. As a result, a full-time non-European cleaner with a permanent position at a Swedish cleaning company that follows the collective agreement will no longer be allowed to stay in the country.
Swedish cleaning companies and industry representatives have rightly criticized the new wage requirements. The sector will lose a large number of skilled and loyal employees who are now being forced to leave the country — and replacing them will be very difficult.
However, there is another side to this issue that also deserves attention but has, for some reason, been largely absent from the discussion.
Without stretching reality too far, one could say that anyone with the right attitude can work as a cleaner, provided they have no diagnosed reduction in work capacity. The job does not require higher education. However, knowledge of the Swedish language is clearly an advantage, and English proficiency is also beneficial.
According to statistics from the Public Employment Service, there were 360,000 job seekers in Sweden as of September. Of these, 164,000 were Swedes (45%), 45,000 were other Europeans (13%), and 151,000 were non-Europeans (42%).
As CEO of a cleaning company, I see every day how difficult it is to find people who want to work as cleaners. When we advertise through the Public Employment Service, the responses we receive are either from applicants who do not meet our stated language requirements (we ask that applicants be able to communicate at least somewhat in Swedish or English) or from people who deliberately disqualify themselves — for example, by living many miles away from the workplace or by explicitly writing that they do not want the job but are applying only to continue receiving unemployment benefits (yes, unfortunately, this is very common and well known among employers in the industry).
So, for us as a recruiting cleaning company in Sweden — with a very high need for staff — there is, in reality, not a single applicant among the 209,000 Swedes and Europeans who considers themselves able, willing, or interested in taking a cleaning job, even though they have the necessary qualifications and are registered as unemployed. This group represents just over half of all job seekers (58%). The remaining group, the 151,000 non-Europeans, also appears largely uninterested in working despite being registered with the Public Employment Service.
Thus, we have a large number of individuals who are qualified for cleaning jobs and sufficiently integrated into Swedish society to be registered as job seekers, while at the same time, the cleaning industry is forced to look for workers far beyond Sweden’s borders (and those workers generally have less relevant language skills for us and our clients). A survey presented by Almega confirms that the main challenge for cleaning companies in recruitment is the candidates’ language skills — and the second-largest problem is that candidates simply decline job offers.
My question is: how will the higher income requirement solve the problem that the currently available workforce simply does not find it worthwhile to take low-skilled jobs such as cleaning? The higher wage threshold prevents labor migration from outside Europe and expels already working and well-integrated non-Europeans from the country. But the problem is that the incentives for unemployed individuals to take a job remain obviously low. This concerns the economic value of various benefits compared to a cleaner’s salary, the way benefits are reduced when income replaces them, the real job-search activity required, and the definition of “employable.” The list of systemic barriers preventing people from moving from unemployment to work is long — and this applies to Swedes, Europeans, and non-Europeans alike.
In my view, the higher income requirement only addresses one side of the equation (reducing labor migration), while the other side (getting the unemployed into work) remains completely untouched.
When the overall perceived value of living on benefits and having full leisure time is clearly higher than working full time as a cleaner earning SEK 27,000 per month, that is where the government and labor market organizations should focus their efforts — not on driving out non-European workers who are already working full time and contributing. It makes little difference if Sweden drastically reduces the number of non-European individuals in the country when those who remain (at least 164,000 Swedes and 45,000 Europeans) clearly will not fill the gaps that appear in the labor market.
To quote again from the Government Offices’ press release: “… [these] are jobs that could instead be performed by people already living in Sweden.” The belief that those registered as unemployed at the Public Employment Service represent a realistic recruitment base for the cleaning industry is, in my experience, completely out of touch with reality. If that were the case, Swedish cleaning companies would be dominated by Swedish cleaners — and that is most certainly not the case.
For further information, please contact:
Mattias Åberg, CEO of Clean Factory, 0708 58 12 10
Northclean was formed in the spring of 2022. The core of Northclean consists of the operating companies within the group, along with its driven entrepreneurs and employees. The companies within Northclean operate under their own well-established brands and continue to build on their strengths and established market positions. Northclean is owned and operated in partnership with the entrepreneurs and employees, the management team and board, as well as the investment company Litorina.
