Sweden. The Unemployment Insurance Controversy

Victorious in the September 2006 parliamentary elections with its slogan “Working Must Pay Off”, the right-leaning coalition which based its program on promoting work has been implementing unemployment insurance reforms since 2007. Opposed from the very beginning, these have become increasingly subject to heavy criticism particularly in light of the brutal rise in unemployment in the wake of the world financial and economic crisis. The government’s determination to reinforce the insurance aspect of unemployment compensation has, in particular, led to an increase in individual contributions which within two years led nearly 500,000 Swedes withdraw from their unemployment insurance fund. The general stability of the unemployment compensation system came under threat following the government’s decision to stop financing these funds. Making the conditions for granting these allowances more restrictive has reduced the safety net that the Swedish system provides for its most precarious workers. The three trade union confederations which manage the unemployment insurance funds are strongly mobilized even if diverging interests prevent them from showing a united front. The debate underway on the conditions for granting insurance and its legal form, as well as on the problem of balancing employment incentives and welfare in the event of unemployment, will undoubtedly go to the heart of the 2010 electoral campaign.

Cyril Coulet

Ancien chercheur à l’Institut suédois de relations internationales (Utrikespolitiska Institutet), boursier de l’Institut suédois (Svenska Institutet), doctorant à l’université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne