More than 80,000 Swedes already work in Norway, making up the largest immigrant group in the country. Staffing company worknorway.se said it has another 50,000 Swedish job hunters in its database, seeking better pay and conditions across the border.
“Norway is an attractive country to work in,” worknorway.se’s recruiting manager Mikael Ljung told newspaper Dagsavisen on Monday. “We have more than 50,000 registered in our bases, who want to work in Norway. Norway is a nice country, and you often have better conditions than us. The service industry is the most popular. And it is the sector with the most jobs. But we provide staff within all sectors.”
Ljung said there was particular demand currently for summer jobs, while in winter northern Norway was a popular destination. Another agency said it had 60,000 Swedish job seekers registered as looking for work in Norway.
“The Swedes who currently work in Norway largely work in the service industry, like shops, hotels, restaurants and so on,” said senior adviser Johannes Sørbø from Norway’s labour and welfare administration NAV. “In addition there are many who work in the Norwegian health system. In the future, the demand for labour will increase especially within health and care, because of the aging population. Here Swedes have the advantage of knowing the language and can easily go into these jobs straight away. At the same time, the need for this type of labour will probably also increase in Sweden in the future.”
“The Swedes are also attractive labour in Norway, with a good reputation as well as being easy to integrate,” Sørbø said. “That there are already many Swedes who work in Norway will also help to make it easier for others who come here, because they maybe know someone who works in Norway already and therefore have a group here.”
Almost 5,400 job vacancies were listed on NAV’s recruitment pages, with over 1,000 of them in the service industry. Sørbø said there was no limit on how many Swedes could register their CVs, but the number who would eventually find work depended on the constantly fluctuating labour market.
newsinenglish.no staff
