Facts: New jobs in the north
Northvolt: In Skellefteå, production started in Northvolt’s battery factory at the turn of the year last winter. Now around 1,700 people work there, but the factory will grow to 4,000. In Västerås there is development and some manufacturing, around 1,000 people now work there. In Gothenburg, battery manufacturing is to be done for Volvo. Around 3,000 are estimated to work there. In Kvarnsveden in Borlänge, the old paper mill is to be converted into a battery factory. Around 1,000 are estimated to be needed there.
H2 Green Steel: In Boden, fossil-free steel is to be produced by H2 Green Steel as early as 2025. Probably around 1,500 people are needed for the actual production in Boden. In addition, there are subcontractors and ancillary services, and the construction of the factory. Perhaps as many as 10,000 people are involved, according to H2 Green Steel.
Hybrit: LKAB’s, SSAB’s and Vattenfall’s investment in fossil-free steel in the so-called Hybrit project means that sponge iron will be manufactured in Gällivare. How many jobs it provides is still unclear. Although just for the construction of facilities for Hybrit, which will take 20 years to complete, it is estimated that 2,000–3,000 people will be needed.
LKAB needs to recruit between 2,000 and 3,000 people, according to the company’s calculations.
Volvo: Battery factory in Mariestad, unclear how many, but more than 1,000 new jobs.
Shanghai Putailai (PTL): At the beginning of May, it became known that the Chinese energy technology company Shanghai Putailai (PTL) is planning a new factory in Torsboda industrial park outside Timrå. The multibillion-dollar investment will create 1,900 new jobs in production, as well as a further 4,000 jobs in community services.
The Danish company NKT, which manufactures high-voltage cables, is to increase its capacity in the factory in Karlskrona. This is expected to create more than 500 new direct jobs at the factory in Karlskrona.
Source: Northvolt, LKAB, SSAB, H2 Green Steel, Timrå municipality, NKT
Peter Larsson is the government’s coordinator for the new industrial ventures in the north and is tasked, among other things, with trying to reconcile the industry’s demands for labor with the conditions for people to be able and willing to move to jobs.
— A general conclusion I have drawn is that we are very good at conversions in Sweden, but not at new establishments, such as when there are new industries that are “airborne” in this way.
So many jobs will be created in some of the big industrial ventures in northern Sweden.
Janus Brandin, regional development director in Region Norrbotten, is on the same line. There is no further routine for new giant investments – especially not in the north, where the population has mostly declined. He jokes that the Labor Market Board, AMS, the predecessor of the Arbetsförmedlingen, in the 1960s and 1970s stood for “All must go south”. Now it’s different.
— This has not been done before. There is no template, says Brandin.
60,000 jobs in Norrbotten
In Norrbotten alone, Brandin expects 30,000 new jobs directly in new industrial ventures during this decade and the next. In addition, there are just as many jobs to manage the community service, such as teachers, nursing staff and shop employees.
— For every new job, 2.8 additional jobs are expected. In addition, a lot is to be built, only there are between 7,000 and 10,000 jobs in Norrbotten.
Nursing staff, teachers and taxi drivers are also needed. Archive image.
Brandin says that a lot is being done to get people into the new industries.
— We are testing a lot of things, including an AI tool in social media, which provides information if you search for, for example, green conversion or steel manufacturing.
In addition, Dutch people are processed intensively, there are many who look abroad to avoid congestion.
“Not very difficult”
The employment agency also tries to puzzle out job seekers with the new jobs.
“Actually, it’s not very difficult to find people who want to work in the new industries, it’s in the surrounding community that the big challenges lie,” says Christina Storm Wiklander, regional director of the Employment Service in the four northernmost counties.
This includes, among other things, teachers, assistant nurses and shop staff. The employment service also offers vocational training in the shortage to meet the new needs. But for people to be able to move, there must be somewhere to live.
“Housing is the key,” says Storm Wiklander.
Housing
Peter Larsson sees some transitional problems when new large investments come. As with housing. In Skellefteå it is being built, even now when construction in the rest of the country is plummeting. He hopes that it will be the same in the other towns, which will also need a lot of new housing.
But what Larsson sees as the big snag in terms of new investments is the lack of a cohesive labor market region in the north. Although there are around 100,000 jobs in Norrbotten, the area that receives new industries is not as large as, for example, the Gothenburg region and the Stockholm area. There is a large labor market there, which can absorb changes.
— A general conclusion is that we underestimate new establishments. A new battery factory does not do everything. In Skellefteå you can see this. There they try to diversify, says Larsson.