A report by Sveriges Radio (SR) claims that such practices are becoming more widespread in the country, with undocumented workers living in squalor and receiving very low wages.

Stockholm’s head of border police, Jerk Wiberg, said such workers are often being exploited and that a number of arrests have been made. “This is a new phenomenon,” Wiberg told the Kaliber programme. “Last year we did not carry out a single raid at a car wash. This year we have made 23,” he added.

“People in these car washes are working under conditions that amount to pure human trafficking,” added Conny Svensson at the Gothenburg tax office.

The Nordlenska abattoir in Husavik, north Iceland, is never busier than at this time of year; as, for around two months, thousands of sheep and lambs arrive to die following a summer of freedom in the open countryside. 90 people are working at the plant and roughly half of them are not Icelandic.

According to Nordlenska staffing manager Sigmundur Hreidarsson, many of the staff members have been coming to slaughter for ten years in a row, or more — and their experience is very important.

The Icelandic sheep slaughter season is, for some of the staff, part of a wider lifestyle which revolves around travel, wide-ranging work, and time spent resting and relaxing.

Darren Patton, a foreman at the abattoir, has been visiting Iceland to work on the slaughter every year since 1988. He enjoys the job and says he likes meeting people from different cultures and nationalities.

Chris Kane, his friend at Nordlenska and fellow Brit, intends to stay two months in Husavik before going to process mink skins near Selfoss and then on to Thailand, where his family lives. After that he will go to New Zealand to work in a vineyard — then back to Thailand and on to complete the circle in Husavik a year from now, RUV reported.

In talks that went on past midnight, employers’ organisation PALTA and the air traffic controllers’ union accepted the proposal of Esa Lonka, the National Conciliator.

The air traffic controllers will now receive a EUR 500 lump sum, to cover the delay due to the negotiations, and a 2.9 percent pay rise from the start the this month. They will then enjoy a further 2.8 percent increase at the same time next year, with more targeted salary rises at certain airports until 2013.

According to Antero Utunen, the leader of the air traffic controllers’ union, the dispute over break times was tougher to resolve than he had anticipated. Harri Hietala, PALTA’s deputy chair, added that the partial agreement was, however, better than reverting to strikes.

Had the deal not been reached, spot strikes at all Finavia hubs would have begun on Tuesday morning.

According to Statistics Iceland, unemployment was 9.5 percent among men and 7.4 percent among women.

The rate of unemployment was highest among 16-24 year-olds; or 18.6 percent.

According to RUV, in the second quarter of the year 3,900 people had been unemployed for a year or longer. At the same time last year the number of long-term unemployed stood at 2,700 people.

This means that long-term joblessness is increasing in Iceland. Those unemployed for a year or more account for 24.7 percent of all unemployed people. 16.9 percent of unemployed people were long-term this time last year.

11 people were laid off at the Lotna fish factory in the tiny Westfjords town of Flateyri, while the others were at companies or other organisations in the capital region. 11 were let go by the Reykjavik department of sport, recreation and culture; while the others were in the fields of trade and education. The Directorate of Labour did not reveal the names of those companies, RUV reported.

So far this year 500 people have been the victims of group lay-offs in Iceland at 16 companies and organisations. A third of those came from the construction industry.

Gissur Petursson, head of the Directorate of Labour, said that immediately following the banking collapse of late 2008, group lay-offs mostly affected those in sectors under the greatest strain; like finance, construction and luxury retail. “Then it evened out, but now in the last month there have been group lay-offs in public sector services which have taken this long to filter through,” he said.

Petursson added that all signs indicate that unemployment in June dipped below seven percent and that it is extremely unlikely that all those who lost their jobs in group lay-offs will end up claiming unemployment benefit. “I’d say that of these 500, if I just take as an example these group lay-offs happening now this year, that less than 50 percent of them are really losing their jobs. The others are more caught in a re-organisation stage at the companies and will hopefully get their jobs back, maybe with different conditions attached. I think if we look at these 500 people, only 100 have become genuinely unemployed as a result.”

“Young people should not be forced into crap professions like being a salesperson working on commission,” Wanngard told DN. Her statement has since caused outrage among the entire retail sector in Sweden.

Speaking to Expressen newspaper, Christian Democrat Ewa Samuelsson said, “I was horrified, especially when this comes from the Social Democrats who are supposed to be a workers’ party. In society there is need for all types of work, and who am I to decide what is a ‘crap job’ and what isn’t?” “All jobs have to be carried out, and all of us started somewhere,” she added.

DN’s own political writer Peter Wolodarski also criticised Wanngard’s comments. “I don’t know if Karin Wanngard has ever worked in telephone sales. I don’t know if she thinks there are more ‘crap jobs’ on the Swedish labour market or who should do them. But what is clear is that not everyone can be the head of multinational giant Hewlett Packard, as she was,” he wrote.

In subsequent interviews, Wanngard claimed her remarks had been taken out of context and exaggerated, but apologised for offending an entire profession.

“Let me be very clear. There are in reality no ‘crap jobs’. There are no unimportant tasks, no crap tasks. However, there are jobs with crap conditions,” she wrote on news site Newsmill. “Let me finally once and for all apologise to all the sales people for what they interpreted as a derogatory comment about their profession,” she concluded.

Unemployment is a more serious problem among the young, with 15.9 percent of 16-24 year-olds on the job market unemployed. The figure is 6.2 percent among 24-54 year-olds and 6.7 among the 55-74 age group. The figures cover those looking for work and do not cover people who do not want a job.

Unemployment measured 8.5 percent in the Reykjavik region and 6.5 percent elsewhere in Iceland, Visir.is reported.

In the first quarter of 2011, 3,800 people had been unemployed for 12 months or longer — which is 27.8 percent of the total number of unemployed people. In the first quarter of 2010 there were 2,500 long-term unemployed.

The document predicts continued tough times in the employment market, but says that it will slowly improve following economic recovery. At the end of the forecast period in 2013, it is predicted unemployment will stand at 5.2 percent, Visir.is reported.

Short-term government projects to support indebted households will have a noticeable positive impact; but not hugely significant. High unemployment, high debt and high tax will all serve to slow growth in disposable household income and consumption in the coming quarters.

Despite the large overseas trade surplus, the exchange rate of the Icelandic krona is expected to remain weak. A strengthening of ten percent during the forecast period to 195 points on the exchange rate index is all that is predicted. Inflation will be moderate, swinging between 2.2 and 3 percent during the period. The Central Bank of Iceland target rate is 2.5 percent.

The Confederation of Icelandic Labour economics department predicts that after a two-year long recession, GDP will grow by 2.5 percent this year and roughly two percent in both 2012 and 2013.

Biaudet claimed she was misquoted when newspaper Hufvudstadsbladet reported that she said the custom actually involved human trafficking, but admitted that such suspicions do need to be examined.

“Pickers may have been encouraged to come to Finland by giving false information about conditions here. They might not have the possibilities to disengage from the situation, because their debt is unreasonable compared with the money earned,” she said.

Many Thai berry pickers are forced to work all summer to pay off loans taken out to fund the expensive journey from their homeland to Finland. Biaudet says she plans to discuss the situation with officials at a meeting this autumn.

Under the so-called everyman’s rights legislation, in Finland, foreigners do not require work permits to pick berries and mushrooms and the money made from such schemes is not taxed. Around 2,000 pickers came to Finland from Thailand this summer.

The Directorate will seek to engage 4,000 Icelandic residents who have been unemployed for over 12 months in a wide variety of projects over the next three months.

The campaign is called ThOR (ÞOR with Icelandic letters) and is an acronym for knowledge and experience in Icelandic. This time, the project will be specifically directed towards the 30-70 year-old age group, Visir.is reports.

4,000 people in Iceland have been looking for work for over a year and the Directorate of Labour has set a goal to personally engage all of them before the 1st November. The unemployed will be offered courses, seminars and various educational and employment-based sessions.

“This is an interesting and important human development project, I am sure that it will mean that people will find it easier to find work that otherwise,” says Minister of Social Affairs and Social Security.

When asked by Visir.is for a message direct to the long-term unemployed, he said: “We are not calling on people to stand around in queues or to make them loiter here doing nothing. We are calling on people and offering them an opportunity – and opportunity to give themselves more knowledge to support their efforts to find work. It is important to take the opportunity.”