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Full-time employment should be a right

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How should Sweden’s active labor market policy be developed?

A job gives you more than food on the table. It gives you self-confidence, workmates and the chance to help shape the way in which our society is built. That’s why everybody’s right to work is the most important issue of all for us, the Social Democrats. And that’s why everyone working in Sweden must be subject to the same conditions.

We want to make full-time employment a right and part-time employment a possibility. We want to create better chances of finding permanent employment and want to raise the unemployment benefit ceiling so that almost everyone will be able to receive 80 percent of their previous wage in the event of unemployment.

Jytte Guteland (SSU)

September 3, 2010

  • Pol – Croatia

    Considering my personal experiences and what logic suggests a job is really more than food on the table. However, a lousy job can’t give you anything of that. Even worse, it can take from you even more than it gives you back. …

    I also noticed that optimal daily working time would probably be around 4-6 hours per day (20-30 hrs per week; depending on the performing job), both from the standpoint of work efficency and human wellbeing. Working more is (i think and feel) only a waste (in the long run).

    This would probably also enable more working positions both directly and indirectly, as it was long time ago envisioned that with technological advancements less and less quantity of human work shall be needed, so people will work less in quantity, but work more on quality (including that of their lives, i guess). This trend was very evident before 1990′s, but since then it seems it has gone into halt or even reversed. (?)

    It is time to go forward, again (if possible). Even if, strangely, since this crises started many people who still have their jobs work only 4 days a week or have reduced their working time, because of lack of meaningfull work. The bad thing is that lots of people seems to do not know exactly what to do with their free-time, morover they have even less or no money to spend for recreational purposes.

    I think it would be good if this time could be more spent on personal and social improvement, as well for enterpreneurship within and outside their companies. But this to happen more frequently probably needs some creative stimuly and more structured effort as well as building habits. …