Information Technology in Sweden   
 
 
 IT Labor Market
 
 

    Education 

    Sweden is blessed with a highly educated population and enjoys a 99% literacy rate.  In general, Swedish women are more educated, but men make up a far greater percentage of the IT students and professionals. 

    Nine years of school are compulsory from the age of 6 or 7, but 95% of all students continue secondary education.  There is also a municipal adult education system that allows adults with inadequate education to reach these same levels. 

    One quarter of adult Swedes have higher education.  There are 40 institutions of higher learning in the country, most are operated by the state and offer free tuition for citizens.  In addition, private, government subsidized adult education reaches 2.5 million course participants per year.  IT training is a popular form of advanced education for adults in Sweden. 

    Education Statistics 
     
    Compulsory Education 
    9 years
    % of Persons with Secondary Education
    95%
    % of Persons with Higher Education
    25%
    Number of Institutions of Higher Education
    40
     

    Labor Supply 

    Sweden is a country of approximately 8.8 million people, with an estimated population growth rate of .23% annually.  85% of the population lives in the southern half of the country, where the climate is more mild than the northern sub-artic and largely rural areas.  The largest concentration of manufacturing, engineering and IT jobs are also located in the southern portions of the country, due to the same geographic factors. 
     
     

     
    Employment 
    The Swedish economy is the largest economy in Scandinavia.  The gross domestic product (GDP) amounted to $184.3 billion in 1996, with an estimated real growth rate of 1.4%.  The total number of companies that year was 300,000 (sole proprietorships not included).  In 1996, there were a total of approximately 4.552 million employees in Sweden, 80% of which were unionized. 

    Workforce Statistics 

    In the 1990s, Swedish increases in labor productivity have been among the greatest among the industrialized countries. The productivity growth between 1989 and 1996 exceeded 30 percent, compared with 25 percent in Japan, 21 percent in the Netherlands, and 16 percent in the United States.  Efficiency gains have been particularly significant in the most knowledge intensive sectors of manufacturing. (Source: OECD)

     
    Population 8.8 million
    Workforce  4.5 million
    Standard Work Week 40 hours 
    % of Women Employed (16-65)  75%
    Unemployment 8% 
    % of the Population Working Part-time 25%
    Mandatory Paid Vacation  5 weeks
    % of Employees In Trade Union  80% 

    Technical Professionals 

    Swedish engineers and technicians are generally less compensated in Sweden wage-wise than their counterparts in Europe and the United States. The total labor cost of a technical engineer is 25% lower than in Germany and the U.S. and 35% lower than in Switzerland. 

    Comparative Labor Costs for a Technical Engineer in 4 countries (Source: ISA) 
     
    Switzerland 70,000 - 90,000
    Germany 62,000 - 80,000
    United States 44,000 - 80,000
    Sweden 50,000 - 60,000
     

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This site was developed for the Impacts of National Information Technology Environments on Business course at the Kogod School of Business, American University, Washington, DC.
For problems or questions regarding this site please e-mail the author: jeffrey_walpole@sra.com.  
 
This page was last updated: December 14, 1998
 
  
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