The startling results are explained by the neighboring countries different social models and approaches, Flexicurity in Denmark and Las in Sweden.

The figures speak for themselves; the unemployment rate in Denmark for young people is 11.2 percent while in Sweden the figure is 27.3 percent according to recent figures from Eurostat. The figures suggest that the Swedish labor model Las is outdated and must be upgraded immediately.

The Danish Flexicurity model and Swedish Las are two very different labor market models. Flexicurity is based on mobility and Swedish Las advocates lifelong jobs and thereby builds an artificial inertia in the labor market.

There are consequences to Swedish Las, young people are locked in jobs they do not feel comfortable in and they consider that the possibility of re-employment is low. Also, that they have to be careful with what they have while young Danish people do not accept a job they do not enjoy, and move on. The flexibility on the Danish labor market is significantly higher than in Sweden.

Swedish Las would never be accepted within sports in Sweden. When it comes to sports, it is about winning and then we compete with the best team.

This approach is not allowed to exist primarily in Swedish small and medium-sized businesses. Here, the number of employment years are higher valued than both the competence and performance, resulting in that almost one in three young Swedish is inactive.

But there are other consequences in recessions, Las mainly affects small-and medium-sized companies which do not get the new skills that is an important part of maintaining business development and competitiveness.


                                                                                    Cecilia Helland