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Christer Holmlund: Teachers' psychological strain a theme for NLS

(Jun 11, 2020) With the reopening of Nordic schools post-Corona, there needs to be more focus on teachers’ working conditions. They made a big digital leap with distance learning and this has been tiring, says Christer Holmlund, the new Secretary-General for NLS, the Nordic Teachers’ Union.

Future unemployment development still hard to predict

(Jun 11, 2020) Countries tackling the Corona crisis have been trying to bridge a few months while society closes down, allowing as many companies as possible to survive with employees and knowledge intact. This has been the case especially in the Nordics. Politicians have shown willing to spend money in unprecedented ways.

Who pays for Corona in the end?

(May 15, 2020) We all benefit from measures to prevent transmission, but the economic consequences are not equally divided. The contamination risk must therefore be measured against the economic consequences, now that the Nordic countries are entering a phase of reopening their societies.

A testing time for Director of Denmark's labour market agency

(May 15, 2020) As the top boss for the Danish Agency for Labour Market and Recruitment STAR, Maria Schack Vindum has been busy after Corona suspended large parts of the country’s employment policy, created mounting unemployment and cleared the way for new solutions.

Iceland’s unemployment soars fivefold

(May 15, 2020) In just four weeks, unemployment in Iceland rose fivefold. At the end of February, 10,000 people had no jobs. By the end of March, the number was 50,000. This has never happened before, says Unnur Sverrisdóttir, head of Iceland’s Directorate of Labour VMST.

A Norwegian NAV course seen through Latin American eyes

(May 15, 2020) I remember the day the Norwegian Labor and Welfare Administration, (NAV), sent me that letter answering about a non-economic help I have applied weeks before, I needed to speak with a counsellor. I said I was a journalist and that I wished to find a job which would match fields of my competence, so I wanted to speak with someone.

A Nordic state of emergency

(Apr 15, 2020) The corona epidemic has closed borders in the Nordic region and the rest of the world. In most countries governments have increased their powers and citizenship has become more important, while personal freedom has been restrained.

Most issues now have a gender dimension

(Mar 06, 2020) The 8th of March is being marked in many different ways across the Nordics. What is the most important issue on International Women’s Day? We look at what has happened after women again have managed to gain more positions of political power in Finland, how the fight for equal pay is doing in Sweden and what Denmark is doing to fight sexual harassment in the workplace.

Nordic visions of more children and fewer suicides

(Feb 16, 2020) The Nordic cooperation's symbol is a swan. But black swans also symbolise the unexpected. This newsletter is about both birth and death. Assistant nurses play an important role in what happens between those two events.

Torbjørn Røe Isaksen takes on tricky government post

(Feb 12, 2020) Torbjørn Røe Isaksen became Norway’s new Minister of Labour and Social Inclusion on 24 January. It is the least sought-after government post right now, after the biggest legal scandal in the country’s history. But Isaksen has ambitions.

The North Sea Diver – working under pressure

(Feb 11, 2020) There are few stories describing working life in Norway’s offshore oil industry, despite the massive impact the sector has had on the country’s economy. Now a new book details one of most remarkable new occupations that emerged from the industry – the deep sea divers. The author is Swedish Hans Claesson.

The Nordic cooperation has three clear goals

(Jan 20, 2020) The Nordic cooperation will soon be going through major changes. A new vision is to be turned into practical politics within three strategic areas. This special edition of the Nordic Labour Journal looks at what is happening in the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The skewed distribution of welfare

(Dec 17, 2019) In Finland, there has been a government crisis. In Sweden, the politicians quarrel over the Public Employment Service and in Norway the scandal where thousands were branded benefit cheats, continues. At the same time, the gap between the poor and the rich is slowly but surely increasing - even in the Faroe Islands where growth has been highest.

Fraud in the welfare state

(Nov 27, 2019) The word fraud has been used a lot in the welfare debate in the Nordics this autumn. In Norway, the “NAV scandal” has been dominating the news. In Denmark, an employee at the National Board of Social Services is in court charged with embezzling more than 100 million Danish kroner, while unemployment statistics for Sweden have been compromised.

A portrait of the richest of the rich in Finland

(Nov 27, 2019) Who are the richest one in a thousand in Finland – the euro millionaires? How do they view themselves and other Finns? These issues are being explored in one of the most discussed books this autumn: Huipputuloiset – or something like The Top Earners in English.

The multi-faceted fight against sexual harassment

(Oct 18, 2019) This October it is two years since the American actor Alyssa Milano sent out the first tweet with the hashtag #metoo. That set off a reaction that spread from Twitter to the streets and into the corridors of power. Suddenly sexualised violence and harassment was being discussed in a new way. But what has really changed in these three years?

Eva Nordmark's task: to liberalise Sweden’s employment act and reform the employment service

(Oct 18, 2019) When former TCO President Eva Nordmark accepted to replace Ylva Johansson as Sweden’s Minister for Employment, she also accepted to follow up on proposals she had been critical of in the past, like the liberalisation of the employment act.

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