Foreign Born Persons on the Swedish Labour Market

Karin Elisabet Lundström, Statistics Sweden

Employment rates among foreign born persons in Sweden are lower than among Swedish born. However, employment statistics are normally based on period data that doesn’t take into account that foreign born persons in Sweden are a heterogeneous group and that the composition of the group changes over time. In this study we therefore take a cohort perspective describing employment rates among foreign born persons in Sweden. This has been done by following employment among foreign-born persons who immigrated to Sweden in 1997, 2000 or 2003. The proportion of employed persons consistently increases with the amount of time in Sweden. After ten years in Sweden, nearly 70 percent of the men and roughly 60 percent of the women are employed. Persons who have received asylum are employed to a lesser degree compared to other groups. The difference in employment is especially great during the first few years in the Sweden.