Swedish residents born abroad have taken around 70 per cent of all jobs created in the Scandinavian country since 2006, according to recent statistics.
Since 2006, the year the current government took power, the country has created roughly 230,000 new jobs, revealed figures from Statistics Sweden (SCB). The statistics office’s figures show that 160,000 of the new jobs have gone to residents born in other countries.
Integration Minister Erik Ullenhag said that 100,000 of the new positions went to people born outside of Europe. In an interview with Sveriges Radio (SR), he described the developments in terms of immigrants working in Sweden as “positive”, noting that there has never been a time when so many people born outside Sweden are actually working.
Despite the improvements, however, the immigrant employment rate is still below that recorded by workers born in Sweden.
The integration minister said the figures prove the centre-right government is doing a good job in reaching groups that had lower rates of employment. However, he acknowledged that the youth employment remains the biggest challenge they have to contend with. He added that the government’s goal is “full employment”, and it is apparent they still have to do more.