A divided labour market – on matching on the Swedish labour market after the economic crisis
Date
26/09/2014
Christina Håkanson analyses the matching between job vacancies and jobseekers on the Swedish labour market in the wake of the financial crisis.
Earlier, both the Riksbank's and the National Institute of Economic Research's analyses showed that matching on the labour market had deteriorated since the crisis. Ms Håkanson follows up these analyses using different methods and data sources and shows that the matching problems remain with regard to employees and employers, particularly when statistics from Arbetsförmedlingen (the Swedish Public Employment Service) are analysed. One important reason is that the composition of the unemployed group has changed. The percentage of people with a weaker attachment to the labour market has increased – this includes larger shares of younger and older people and people born abroad.
Although the picture of how difficult the matching problems are is affected by the data source used, the conclusion in the article is that the part of unemployment due to poorer matching probably cannot be reduced by means of more expansionary monetary policy.
The article is included in this year's second issue of the Sveriges Riksbank Economic Review .
By Christina Håkanson
Christina Håkanson works at the Monetary Policy Department, Sveriges Riksbank.
