The latest services indicator from Almega, the employer and trade organisation for the Swedish services sector, for the first quarter of 2017 reached its highest level since 2007.

The service indicator measures the growth of production of services. The index value for the first quarter was at 103.3, the highest since 2007 when it was listed at 103.5. However, Almega states that labour shortage is reaching new record levels and job requirements are not being fully met.

“A recurring question is how services are being produced at near maximum capacity and production is being increased, despite the current limited resources,” Lena Hagman, chief economist at Almega said.

“The short-term solution for the previous year has been to increase average working hours for existing staff,” Hagman said. “We see that the average hours worked increased by 1.1% in 2016 and now to increase production, we look for new resources in the form of the right skills.”

Almega has also recently proposed a new bill on public employment service. The aim of the bill is to reform results-driven employment by ‘strengthening competence’.

“We have for some time seen that many service companies lack confidence in the Employment Service and therefore we believe that it is high time to re-organise it,” Ulf Lindberg, nutrition policy director at Almega, said.

“It would be desirable to have more focus on results, better matching and hence improved skills. In the current situation it is difficult to find the right staff through the Employment Service and it creates problems with the loss of employment among our member companies,” Lindberg said.