In the same quarter of 2025, there were 109 900 job openings in total on the labour market, which is fewer than the third quarter 2024. Of these, 83 200 were advertised while 26 800 were job openings where the employer tried to recruit in other ways.

The number of job openings which the employer wished to be filled immediately were 77 500 while the number of job vacancies (job openings excluding substitutes) were 94 500.

Of the total number of job openings, 87 000 were in the business sector. In public administration, there were 20 000 job openings, of which 5 300 were in central government and 10 100 respectively 4 700 in municipalities and county councils.

Lower proportion of employers had experienced recruitment issues last six months

In the last six months

• 46 percent of employers had experienced recruitment issues
• 27 percent of employers had not experienced recruitment issues
• 28 percent of employers did not recruit or tried to recruit at all.

The proportion of employers that has recruited the last six months is slightly lower than in the third quarter of 2024. It is also less common to have recruited and experienced problems.

More common to succeed among those who recruit

Employers may experience recruitment issues but still succeed in hiring as many employees as they seek. However, if they fail to recruit the desired number, this can be an important indicator of labour shortage.

Among the employers that tried to recruit in the last six months

• 65 percent had succeeded in recruiting
• 35 percent had not succeeded in recruiting the sought number.

This is a small improvement compared to the third quarter of 2024, when 39 percent had failed to recruit.

Recruitment issues more common in northern Sweden

Some of the most common recruitment issues, throughout the entire country, include a lack of applicants with the right education or sufficient work experience, or applicants having higher salary expectations than the employer had planned for. Recruitment issues were more common among employers in Central Norrland than, for example, South- and West Sweden.

Recruiting the required number was also more difficult in the Northern parts of Sweden. In Central and Upper Norrland, 42 and 45 percent of employers failed to recruit the desired number, while the corresponding share was 33 percent in Stockholm, South- and West Sweden.

No changes in employers’ hiring plans

In the following year

• 28 percent of employers expect to increase their number of employees
• 11 percent of employers expect to decrease their number of employees
• 37 percent of employers expect their number of employees to remain unchanged
• 25 percent of employers cannot estimate their hiring plans.

Employers’ expectations of the future recruitment needs are more or less unchanged since the first quarter of this year. Also, expectations do not differ much between different parts of Sweden.

Job openings and recruitment needs

Is a new survey which has replaced the surveys Job openings and unmet labour demand, Labour market tendency survey and the Labour market outlook survey. Job openings and recruitment needs will report statistics on job openings, recruitment problems and skills needs. The statistics is used to analyse the economy and make forecasts about the economic situation, and it is part of the European Labour Market statistics on Businesses.

There are some substantial discrepancies between the design of Job openings and recruitment needs and that of Job openings and unmet labour demand, which was the base for official statistics regarding job vacancies up until the first quarter of 2024. Therefore, it is advised to take precaution in comparison over time.

Seasonally adjusted values are initially available for the total number of job openings and is presented together with the unadjusted time series for the total number of job openings in the same table.

Since the statistics is based on a sample survey, it is associated with some selection bias. Therefore, the margin of error obtaining to each statistical value is presented as well.