Tomas Berglund

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• PhD
• Professor at University of Gothenburg

This study focuses on immigrants’ labor market prospects in Sweden and their subsequent opportunities for mobility in the occupational structure with particular reference to the likelihood that immigrants of European and non-European origins work in low and high-paid jobs. We use data from the Swedish Labor Force Survey and compare outcomes of two...

This final chapter of the book Scrutinising Polarisation summarises the main findings of upgrading and polarisation tendencies in the Swedish labour market, the mechanisms behind changes, which social categories are affected, and the significance of the Swedish industrial relation model. The chapter ends with a more general discussion by relating t...

This chapter studies whether the occupational structure in Sweden moved towards upgrading or polarisation between 2000 and 2015. Occupational wage level and skill requirements are both used as indicators of occupational change. The chapter also scrutinises the relationship between those indicators, as well as the relationship between occupational w...

This chapter analyses changes in earnings and disposable income from 1997 to 2014 in relation to a changing occupational structure. Earnings are defined as incomes from gainful employment before taxes, while disposable incomes are incomes net of taxes and, besides earnings, also include capital incomes and social transfers. The main result of the s...

This chapter studies whether the occupational structure in Sweden moved towards upgrading or polarisation between 2000 and 2015. Occupational wage level and skill requirements are both used as indicators of occupational change. The chapter also scrutinises the relationship between those indicators, as well as the relationship between occupational w...

This is the introductory chapter for the book entitled Scrutinizing Polarization: Patterns and consequences of occupational transformations in the Swedish labour market (Routledge). The starting point of the book is the changing employment and job structure in Western economies, and the Swedish economy in particular, and the question of whether the...

Can the Nordic wage-setting model, where social partners decide wages through collective agreements, counteract a growing low-paid sector? This article tests four definitions of low-paid jobs to analyze whether this sector has grown for the period 2005–2020 in Sweden. Despite policy changes pointing towards growth, all definitions show a slight dec...

In 2007–2008, Sweden implemented changes to the Ghent system of unemployment insurance, leading to union density decline. We study the interaction of labour force composition and institutional changes, finding that the structural tendencies of the decline strongly interacts with these changes, exposing previous precarious categories even further.

This article discusses the multi-faceted and changing role played by trade unions in providing unemployment benefits in Sweden, a country using the so-called Ghent system. As an important institutional feature explaining the high rate of unionisation in the Nordics, the system has been much debated. This article provides a comprehensive account of...

This article contributes to the discussion on how the Swedish labor market is changing: is it upgrading or polarizing? Drawing on the Swedish Labor Force Survey the study examines the overall changes in the occupational job structure in Sweden by exploring how women and men were distributed within the occupational prestige hierarchy at two points o...

Background Socioeconomic position has been linked to sickness absence (SA). However, less is known about the role of occupational prestige, a measure of social status afforded by one's occupation, in SA. To expand knowledge on socioeconomic determinants of SA and on gender differences in SA, this study aimed to investigate the association between o...

This study compares the labour market trajectories of the temporary employed in Norway with those in Sweden. Sweden’s employment protection legislation gap between the strict protection of permanent employment and the loose regulation of temporary employment has widened in recent decades, while Norway has maintained balanced and strict regulation o...

Objectives Socioeconomic position has been linked to sickness absence (SA). However, less is known about the role of occupational prestige, a measure of social status afforded by one’s occupation, in SA. We investigated the association between occupational prestige and SA and the distribution of the association in women and men. We also examined th...

Objective: This study aimed to explore the development of working conditions within and between occupations in the Swedish labor market from 1997 to 2015 and whether any polarization in working conditions concurrently occurred between occupations. Methods: Cross-sectional data from ten waves of the Swedish Work Environment Surveys (1997-2015) we...

Most Nordic labour market and welfare state models are shaped around the notion of the standard full-time open-ended contract. However, the recent development in non-standard work (NSW) may challenge these institutions. In this TemaNord report, we analyse the recent development of NSW within the context of the Nordic models. We draw on Nordic Labou...

This book aim to go behind the grand, general narratives of digitalization as a coherent, uniform force of disruption, job destruction and revolutionary change at work. The book comprise studies that convey a more nuanced picture of what digitalization means and how it plays out at ordinary Nordic workplaces in traditional sectors.

In the Swedish labour market, recent research has revealed tendencies of both dualisation – implying growth in temporary employment – and polarisation – referring to increased employment in both low- and high-paid jobs, while middle-paid jobs decrease. This study explores the relationships between changes in the occupational structure and the distr...

This paper studies whether the occupational structure in Nordic labour markets is changing in the direction of upgrading or polarization. Upgrading refers to an increase of employment in highly skilled/paid occupations, while low-skilled/paid jobs decline. Polarization refers to simultaneously growing shares of employment in occupations in the high...

The share of temporary work in the labor market has increased, but the consequences of this change remain controversial. Specifically, the differences associated with temporary employment and labor market outcomes, such as earnings, are debated. In this study, we contribute to the literature by describing the earnings differences associated with em...

We compare the effects of relatively liberal regulations on the use of temporary employment in Sweden and more restrictive rules in Norway. We find not only that temporary work may be a stepping stone out of unemployment but also that fixed-term employees are exposed to significant risks of long-term marginalization. Moreover, fixed-term employees...

The aim of this article is to describe and explain the development of temporary employment in Sweden between 1992 and 2010, and to investigate the effect of temporary employment for individuals’ future career on the labor market. The article analyzes temporary employees’ status transitions on the labor market using Swedish Labour Force Survey (LFS)...

Tidsbegränsat anställdas framtida arbetsmarknadssituation Artikeln analyserar tidsbegränsat anställdas övergångar till olika arbetsmarknadssituationer med hjälp av AKU-data för perioden 1992-2010. Varje årgång består av två-åriga paneler och fokuserar vad som hänt mellan första och sista mätpunkten. Resultaten visar att typ av tidsbegränsad anställ...

The aim of this article is to describe and explain the development of temporary employment in Sweden between 1992 and 2010, and to investigate the effect of temporary employment for individuals’ future career on the labor market. The article analyzes temporary employees’ status transitions on the labor market using Swedish Labour Force Survey (LFS)...

This report focuses on labour market mobility in the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, in particular mobility that entails a transition from one region to another within the countries. We will examine how labour market programmes (LMPs) should be designed to promote mobility. In order to identify relevant possibilities, Kazakhstan...

The aim of this paper is to uncover some of the mechanisms that could make the older workforce willing and able to stay employed. Our focus is on work-related factors that predict the probability of staying in employment despite entitlement to old-age pension. The analyses are based on data from the first and second waves of the Panel Survey of Age...

This collection of national background reports are produced as part of a pilot project on Nordic Labour Markets and the Sharing Economy funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers and organized by Fafo, Oslo. The aim of the pilot project was to facilitate Nordic information exchange and provide a better knowledge base for developing future Nordic stu...

This article focuses on the relationship between employment protection regulation (EPL), trade unions and tenure of employment. A main hypothesis is that EPL strictness tends to prolong tenure, because rigorous rules imply that remaining with the same employer gives more job security. The role of unions can be expected to be similar. These assumpti...

This paper focuses on current European employment policy, promoting the individual's responsibility for remaining employable. Within this supply-oriented framework, general political responsibilities of both increasing the demand for labour and facilitating the development of human capital through training and education opportunities are less empha...

This article deals with the relationship between job insecurity and organizational commitment. Our analysis includes both ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ measures of job insecurity and it also distinguishes between a cognitive and affective component of the subjective dimension. As to organizational commitment, we make a distinction between value comm...

This chapter focuses on the policy proposal of flexicurity – the creation of labor market institutions that facilitate both flexibility and security for employers and employees. In substance, the flexicurity proponents argues that employment protection legislations should be liberalized, but such liberalization should be compensated by more generou...

The Nordic countries have been renowned for labour markets with high-quality jobs. The key question for the article is whether this also holds in the current financial and Eurozone crisis. Focus is on the initial years of the crisis, and indicators from the European Working Conditions Survey are used to trace changes in job quality. Physical job de...

The so-called flexicurity approach suggests that security for employees can be successfully combined with flexibility for organizations and companies. This article studies if affective job insecurity (worry about losing one's job) is compensated for by perceptions of employment security (possibilities of finding an equal or better job) and income s...

Studies of the relationship between class position and political outlooks still only have a limited understanding of the class-related mechanisms that matter for ideological orientations. This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the mechanisms that link class position and left/right and authoritarian/libertarian orientations. Besides main...

The article studies how changes in 2007 in the Swedish unemployment insurance (UI) have influenced employees’ turnover cognitions. It is argued that the combination of a strict employment protection legislation (EPL) and a generous UI in 2006 made employees more inclined to risky transitions. The post-2007 combination of a strict EPL and an ungener...

Svensk arbetsmarknadspolitik har förändrats kraftigt sedan 1980-talet. I denna artikel studeras övergången från efterfråge- till utbudsinriktade åtgärder, samt hur synen på aktivering förändrats sedan 1980-talet. Genom en analys av regeringsförklaringar, budgetpropositioner och åtgärdsprogram visas hur offensiva aktiva åtgärder alltmer ersatts av d...

The advent of ‘the Swedish Model’ was related to questions of economic crisis and high unemployment levels in the 1920s. New ideas, connecting insufficient demand with unemployment, were embraced by the Social Democratic Party (Blyth 2001). In the 1930s, the Social Democratic gov-ernment took a more pro-active role in stabilizing employment on a hi...

Advocates of flexicurity claim that flexibility and security in the labour market can be achieved by a combination of certain institutions: liberal Employment Protection Legislation (EPL), generous income protection, extensive Active Labour Market Policies (ALMPs), and good opportunities for Lifelong Learning (LLL). Such a mix of measures is assume...

It is said that people today are less interested in collective solutions such as union representation, mainly as a result of the processes of individualization that dilute collectivist orientations. On the basis of survey data carried out in Sweden in 1997 and 2006, the article studies attitudes towards two ways of negotiating with the employer — t...

The report focuses on labour market mobility during the period 2000-2006 in four Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The purpose is to study rates and determinants of mobility and how differences in the institutional settings in the four countries affect mobility outcomes. Especially, the institutional mix that is contained in th...

One important factor in labour market flexibility is the readiness of employees to change jobs and employers. The mobility of employees to growing sectors of the economy is commonly regarded as a sign of a well-functioning labour market. However, flexibility is a complex concept, as demonstrated by Jonsson in Chapter 3 of this volume. Before we can...

IN THIS ARTICLE, relations between social comparisons and experiences of stress are studied. The comparison referent is close workmates and the comparison attributes are salary and career opportunities. Different mediating processes have been extracted from theories of social comparisons, reference groups and inequity. The comparison processes are...

Collectivist attitudes among workers are often said to have become replaced by individualistic leanings. Some argue that individualism is also spreading within the traditional manual working class and in particular among the young. On the basis of a survey carried out in Sweden in 1997, aspects of the collectivism-individualism issue are studied em...