The top priority--Jobs

”Jobb är viktigare än lön för nio av tio ungdomar” - DN.se: "Om de unga ska få in en fot på arbetsmarknaden krävs, förutom jobbskatteavdrag, sänkta arbetsgivaravgifter, lärlingsutbildningar med mera, flexiblare arbetsrätt och så kallade avstampsjobb med lägre ingångslöner."

Anders Borg once said that economically Sweden was similar to the Netherlands. This is good news because the unemployment in the Netherlands is lower than 3%. The lowest rate in EU-27. However, Sweden now has one of the highest unemployments for young people in the EU.

The report A European Paradise from 'Svenskt Näringsliv' delineates the reforms taken in the Netherlands that might have helped them along. A point might be that they did the reforms ten years ago and we are just thinking about doing things. Making changes soon might still take ten years to give results? Some of the changes in Maud Olofsson's list are not in the list of the Netherlands?

On page 34 in the report one finds the following from an article of 2005:

"From the mid-nineties, a series of labor market reforms have been carried out in the Netherlands. Below are some examples.

Lower overall taxes on labor since the end of the nineties.

A labor tax deduction was introduced in 2001 and later expanded in 2003 and 2004.

Payroll taxes were significantly reduced in 1998.

In 1998, the rules governing employee termination were terminated.

The possibilities of renewing temporary employment contracts were expanded in 1999.

The maximum time for which employees could receive benefits was shortened in 2004.

In 2002, competition between job agencies was introduced, where the agencies received funding in accordance with the extent to which their clients received employment."

In Sweden the outsideship makes the move to the job market to large for many individuals. What we might need is a gradient of job opportunities to replace the large step. It seems to me that the reforms of the Netherlands would provide such a gradient making each job closer to reach for each individual?

The problem with unemployment is of course worse now due to circumstances beyond our control but it was larger than that of the Netherlands also before the financial crisis. It would be interesting to know why Sweden now take other measures than the Netherlands to reach their goal? There seems to be a social democratic phantom influencing decisions. 'Moderaternas' congress, for example, did not dare to do changes in employment law for the risk of losing the election. Is it not the job of 'Alliansen' to explain that changes are perhaps necessary but the results can not be expected before the election.