Migration and employment status during the turbulent nineties in Sweden

THE TURBULENT 90s AND NEW MOBILITY PATTERNS

During the 90s, Sweden was hit by the deepest labour market crisis since the great depression
of the 30s. There are, however, differences between these two crises. Even if the crisis of the
30s was a structural break in the Swedish economy the consequences were not the same with
respect to the long-term labour market development as the crisis of the 90s. Instead, the first
crisis can in this sense be seen as an ordinary business cycle - but deeper - and the
unemployed returned usually to the their jobs afterwards. The crisis of the 90s seems,
however, to have changed the functioning of labour market with increased segmentation and
mismatch on the labour market and then also increased long-term unemployment as one
result. The labour market has, thus, become more and more segmented regarding competence
levels - the labour force is not homogenous but rather heterogeneous. The maladjustment or
the mismatch on the labour market seems also to have been accentuated during the structural
transformation during the past decades and - at least in Sweden - especially then during the
90s. This segmentation process has also regional dimensions that hamper the regional
matching process (Bengtsson & Johansson, 1994; Johansson & Persson, 1999, 2000).

Long-distance migration has traditionally been associated with the migration pattern of the
industrial society. People moved from farming and forestry area to industrial ones, and from
towns and regions with unemployment to places where labour was in demand. It was
relatively easy to get a job if you chose the migration alternative, and there was a strong
connection between economic fluctuations and long-distance migration. The difference
between various generations´ migration patterns was more in terms of quantity than of
different types (see e.g. Johansson & Persson, 1991).

The industrial migration pattern was thus sensitive to business cycles, with relatively short-
term variations in labour market conditions resulting in changes in migration figures. Good
times resulted in higher migration intensities and bad times lower. One indicator of this is the
high correlation between long-distance migration and unemployment during the 60s and 70s
(Johansson & Persson, 1999) The same is valid with regard to changes in the economic
situation in different regions - accentuated regional imbalances stimulated interregional
migration and diminished imbalances hampered it. Migration was equilibrating between
labour supply and demand in various regions.

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