Our assignment
Arbetsförmedlingen is the Swedish Public Employment Service. Our job is to match those who are looking for employees with those who are looking for work as efficiently as possible.
We contribute to increased employment
Fundamentally, our assignment is about contributing to a well-functioning labour market. An important task for us is also proving those who find it difficult to enter the labour market with the right tools. In this way, we contribute to preventing exclusion and to increased employment.
Our assignment also includes checking that employers who receive individual recruitment incentives comply with the regulations. We also ensure that those who are registered as unemployed comply with the regulations so that they can receive the right support from the unemployment insurance fund and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency, among others.
We help jobseekers and employers to find each other
We are available to our customers wherever they are – online, by phone, chat and video meetings, as well as at service offices all over the country. All our services are free of charge.
What we offer employers (in Swedish)
We work on behalf of parliament and government
The Government gives us assignments, both ongoing and via appropriation directions. Appropriation directions are the decisions issued by the Government each year in order to regulate the activities of a government agency.
Here are some examples of activities the Government has decided that we are to carry out.
Arbetsförmedlingen is a civil contingencies agency
With effect from 1 October 2022, Arbetsförmedlingen is now a civil contingencies agency. This means that we are responsible for activities that are important to maintain in times of crisis, heightened readiness or ultimately war. A civil contingencies agency must be able to withstand threats and risks, prevent vulnerabilities, manage crisis situations in peacetime and perform its duties in times of heightened readiness. A civil contingencies agency must also work to ensure that other government agencies, local authorities, regions and other stakeholders develop their readiness for response. There are in total 60 civil contingencies agencies, divided into 10 sectors. Arbetsförmedlingen is part of the Economic Security sector, for which the Swedish Social Insurance Agency (Försäkringskassan) has sector responsibility. The sector must ensure the function of society’s outgoing payments, such as unemployment insurance, child benefit, parental allowance, sickness benefit and pensions.
Structural reform of crisis readiness and civil defence (msb.se) (in Swedish)
Regulation on government agencies’ readiness for response (riksdagen.se) (in Swedish)
Response readiness for companies (msb.se) (in Swedish)
Digital first
The majority of our services can now be managed digitally. The purpose of digitalisation is to make it easier for our customers to get in contact with us, manage and gain more control over their cases.
Other specific assignments
Arbetsförmedlingen works, among other things, with specific assignments of the Government. Two of these specific assignments include the ongoing work around the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2023 and the assignment in connection with the national strategy for preventing and combating men's violence against women.