Many Swedes work in Denmark instead – albeit remotely. Remote work has made it easier than ever to compete with Swedish salaries abroad.
SEK 200,000 more in annual salary
A professional group that has been attracted abroad is Swedish engineers, who can get SEK 200,000 more in annual salary after tax by switching to a Danish employer.
It tells Ulrika Lindstrandchairman of the Confederation of Swedish Engineers.
– The higher wages are attractive. The risk is that many of our talented engineers will instead start working in Denmark if the Swedish employers do not offer wages on par with our neighboring countries, says Ulrika Lindstrand.
Double smock
In ten years, Swedish engineers who “commute” to Denmark have doubled. The Danish krone is tied to the euro, while the Swedish krone has fallen freely during the downturn and Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
It is called a double whammy against Sweden’s skills supply. We train engineers who are then attracted to work in other countries. Often from home.
It is clear from one press release from Sweden’s Engineers.
Further and further from home
According to the trade union, the possibility of remote work means that Swedish engineers are prepared to work at workplaces further and further away from their hometown. This is because the opportunity to work from home is worth the slightly longer journey when you need to be on site.
This is how the union that conducted the study writes:
“Many engineers are now prepared to commute over an hour, provided they can work partially remotely. Engineers’ distance to the workplace has increased by 20 percent since 2020, and just over 11 percent of them have more than 10 miles to their job.”
Eight out of ten would consider working abroad
In a survey of Sweden’s engineering students, four out of ten state that they would consider moving to another Nordic country to work.
But when it comes to the possibility of working remotely, the percentage who say they would consider taking a job in neighboring Nordic countries doubles to eight out of ten.
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