Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
Sweden has long been striving to achieve many of the targets encompassed by Goal 8. GDP growth in 2015 was 3 per cent per capita. The average hourly wage for women was SEK 172 in 2015 and for men SEK 196 in the same year. The informal sector in Sweden, excluding agriculture, amounted to 3.9 per cent of total wage payments.
Unemployment, calculated according to UN metadata requirements, was 7.5 per cent in 2015 for persons aged 16-64. For men, the proportion was 7.7 per cent and for women 7.3 per cent. The proportion of young people aged 15-24 who neither work nor study was 6.7 per cent in 2015.
In 2015, 34 fatal occupational injuries occurred, 32 of which were suffered by men and 2 by women. In the same year, the number of non-fatal occupational injuries reported was 31 773, of which 57 per cent affected men and 43 per cent women.
Sweden has ratified 93 of the ILO conventions and three protocols. The eight fundamental and the four governance conventions have been ratified.
The indicator for the material footprint measures the global impact of a society’s use of materials, including imports. According to the model’s calculation, Sweden’s material footprint increased between 1990 and 2010.
Sweden faces several challenges. These include, for example, reducing differences and disparities on the labour market, including differences in pay between women and men. Persons with a disability, newly arrived immigrants, those born outside Europe and certain older people and young people have greater difficulty than others in establishing themselves on the labour market. Furthermore, the women and men who lack a complete upper secondary education have a greater risk of being affected by long-term unemployment, regardless of background and other conditions.
Internationally, Sweden acts bilaterally and multilaterally through trade policy, promotion and development cooperation in order to contribute to the fulfilment of Goal 8. With contributions of approximately SEK 2.77 billion in 2015, Sweden is an important actor within the international Aid for Trade initiative. This aims to strengthen the opportunities of developing countries to benefit from international trade through support for infrastructure, productive capacity and for trade policy and rules.
Sweden’s development cooperation supports the capacity of low and middleincome countries to develop institutions and systems so that these will make an effective contribution to a sustainable and inclusive development. This includes strengthening the conditions for dynamic and sustainable business and productive employment, with decent work.
Sweden is active in the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda. In collaboration with other countries, the ILO and the OECD, Sweden has also initiated Global Deal with the international objective of using enhanced joint dialogue between all relevant parties on the labour market to promote the creation of decent jobs and an inclusive growth.
