Fixed-term employment remains high

According to a report published in November 2003 by the LO trade union confederation, over 13% of Swedish employees currently have some form of fixed-term employment. Since 1990, the number of fixed term employment contracts has increased by about a third. The phenomenon particularly affects women (especially young women) and blue-collar workers. The government has not yet responded to a recommendation from a public committee that fixed-term workers should be given greater employment protection.

On 19 November 2003, the Swedish Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisationen, LO) presented a new report on employment forms and working time (Anställningsformer och arbetstider 2003). The report is based on data from the official Labour Force Survey conducted by Sweden Statistics (Statistiska Centralbyrån) covering the period from the first quarter of 1990 to the first quarter 2003. The report is a follow-up to a similar exercise conducted in 2001 (SE0109101F).

At the beginning of 2003, there were almost 3.8 million employees in Sweden. Out of these, about 510,000 employees had some kind of fixed-term employment, of whom about 310,000 were women. The most common types of fixed-term employment are: 'stand-in' contracts (replacing absent workers), which covered 165,000 workers; 'casual' contracts (temporary 'peak workload' contracts according to the legal definition in the Employment Protection Act), held by 125,000 workers; and 'project employment' contracts (contracts for a certain work task or a special project, with a time limit), which affected 90,000 workers. Some 60,000 workers had probationary employment contracts and about 20,000 workers had been hired on a seasonal contract.

Increase in fixed-term employment

During the period 1990-2003, the number of fixed-term employment contracts has increased by a little more than 130,000 (a rise of around a third), while open-ended employment contracts have decreased by about 400,000. Fixed-term employment has over this period increased from 9.4% to 13.6% of all employment. Compared with 2001 however, the situation in 2003 has changed little in terms of both fixed-term and open-ended employment (see the table below). A downward trend in open-ended employment was observed until 1993-7, but since then the trend has been upward. In 1990 there were 3,642,000 open-ended contracts, while the figure was 3,221,000 in 2001 and 3,249,000 in 2003.

The LO report also examines the number of workers represented by the white-collar Confederation of Salaried Employees, (Tjänstemännens Centralorganisation, TCO) and the professional workers’ Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations (Sveriges Akademikers Centralorganisation, SACO) with fixed-term employment contracts, comparing these with figures for the blue-collar workers represented by LO. Overall, 16% of female LO workers and 9% of male LO workers had fixed-term contracts. In TCO the figures were 8% for both men and women, and in SACO 12% for women and 9% for men.

Young women often have fixed-term employment

Among blue-collar workers, there are major differences between age groups as well as between male and female workers in relation to fixed-term employment. This type of employment is the most common form for young female blue-collar workers. Almost 46% of all female workers below 25 years of age had fixed-term work of some type at the beginning of 2003, with the level at 29% for those aged 25-29.

In LO overall, 12% of members had some kind of fixed-term employment, compared with 7% for TCO and 11% for SACO. Looking at the situation in specific trade unions, 25% of the members (male and female) of the Hotel and Restaurant Workers’ Union (Hotell och Restauranganställdas förbund) had fixed-term employment. Other unions with relatively high proportions of fixed-term workers among their members were the Municipal Workers’ Union (Kommunalarbetareförbundet, Kommunal) at 16%, the Commerce Workers' Union (Handelsarbetareförbundet, Handels) at 14% and the Transport Workers’ Union (Transportarbetareförbundet, Transport) and Real Estate Workers’ Union (Fastighetsanställdas förbund), both at 13%. Casual work contracts had increased, especially among hotel and restaurant workers (from 1% in 1990 to 8% in 2003), commerce workers (from zero to 4%) and municipal workers (from 1% to 4%).

Overall changes since 1990

Across the whole Swedish labour market, the forms of employment that have grown most since 1990 are fixed-term contracts, and particularly casual and project employment - see the table below. While the latter form has not been increasing since 1999, casual employment has continued to grow. As for stand-in employment, there is no clear trend. The number of probationary employment contracts has decreased in recent years. The number of seasonal employment contracts has remained around the same generally low level since 1990.