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Norway frets over flood of job-seeking Swedes

The Local Sweden
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Norway frets over flood of job-seeking Swedes

Swedish labour migration to Norway is threatening to nab jobs from the country's own job seekers, warned a Norwegian business association that also accused Sweden of political negligence.

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"Norway cannot save Sweden from its youth unemployment," warned Dag Aarnes, director of Næringslivets Hovedorganisasjon (NHO) in Norway.

He singled out Swedish and Polish workers when comparing labour migration figures to the number of jobs available on the Norwegian labour market.

"The Norwegian Migration Board says it expects about 50,000 EU migrants every year, with between 20,000 to 30,000 Swedes," Aarnes wrote in the report.

"Given that about 20,000 to 25,000 Norwegians look for new jobs every year, I think the combined total is too much for the Norwegian labour market."

Aarnes went on to write that countries such as Sweden and Poland had to focus on getting their domestic labour markets in order.

He specifically said that youth unemployment in Sweden needed to be addressed. Aarnes claimed that Norway's neighbour to the east "was not taking political responsibility" for the problem.

TT/The Local/at

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