Temporary Work in Turbulent Times: The Swedish Experience

Arbeitspapier

Sweden has experienced a substantial increase in temporary work over the 1990s, with most of the rise occurring during a severe macroeconomic recession with mass unemployment. By the early 1990s, workers on fixed-term contracts accounted for 10 percent of the number of employees; by the end of the decade they accounted for 16 percent. The paper presents the Swedish institutional setting, documents basic stylised facts about fixed-term contracts, and discusses the causes of their increased prevalence. Our analysis reveals that open-ended and temporary employment exhibit strikingly different cyclical behaviour with temporary employment being more volatile. A recession is associated with an initial decline in temporary employment followed by a sharp rise from the trough to the end of the recession. We argue that the severe recession of the 1990s is a major factor behind the rise in temporary work in Sweden. Adverse macroeconomic conditions make firms more prone to offer fixed-term contracts and workers more willing to accept them.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper ; No. 2002:1

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Business Fluctuations; Cycles ; Unemployment: Models, Duration, Incidence, and Job Search
• Subject: Temporary jobs ; Labour market dynamics ; Unemployment ; Leiharbeit ; Befristeter Arbeitsvertrag ; Konjunktur ; Konjunkturelle Arbeitslosigkeit ; Schweden

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Holmlund, Bertil ; Storrie, Donald
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Uppsala University, Department of Economics
• (where): Uppsala
• (when): 2001

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/82911
• URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-2239
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET