Facing redundancy in Sweden

A varsel is an employer's advance warning that jobs may go, usually because there is not enough work. It is a warning, not a dismissal. Plans often shift during the warning period, and some people land a new role before any decision is made.

An employer planning cutbacks that affect at least five employees in the same county must notify Arbetsförmedlingen in writing, explaining why, how many people and which categories are affected, and when. The lead time depends on scale: at least two months for up to 25 people, four months for 26 to 100, and six months for more than 100, counted to the first person's last day. For affected fixed-term staff the minimum is six weeks. Arbetsförmedlingen sets out the employer side on its page about reporting redundancies (in Swedish).

Employers must also negotiate with the union before deciding on redundancies, which is where your union can influence the outcome. Contact them early.

What to do while you wait

• Find out what your notice period is, what insurance cover you keep and what happens to your occupational pension.
• You do not need to contact Arbetsförmedlingen yet. Being warned is not the same as being dismissed.
• Start looking anyway. Arbetsförmedlingen has a practical page on getting started with a job search.
• If you are dismissed, register with Arbetsförmedlingen on your first day without work.

Under the Employment Protection Act (LAS), dismissal needs objective grounds, and the employer must first consider other work for you. The minimum notice from your employer depends on your total time with them:

Collective agreements can set other terms. During notice you keep your pay and benefits, even without work, and get reasonable paid time off to job-hunt.

Who goes first. Selection is based on total length of employment, with longer service protected first and age deciding ties. Before applying the order, the employer may exempt up to three people it considers especially important. If you are dismissed for lack of work and had more than 12 months' employment in the last three years (or more than nine months on a special fixed-term contract), you usually have a right of first refusal if the employer rehires within nine months.

A fixed-term contract simply ends on its end date, without a dismissal. But the employer must tell you at least one month before the end that the contract will not continue if, by then, you have worked there either:

• more than 12 months in total over the last three years, or
• more than nine months in total over the last three years on a special fixed-term contract (särskild visstidsanställning, SÄVA), the general form of fixed-term employment under the Employment Protection Act.

Most Swedish universities are state employers. In the state sector, the job security agreement extends the notice period for redundancies in employments that have lasted 12 months or more, and Trygghetsstiftelsen (the Job Security Foundation) supports people who are made redundant, as Arbetsgivarverket explains (in Swedish). Its support also covers people whose fixed-term employment ends, which matters for postdocs and project-funded researchers. The employer registers eligible staff with the foundation, so ask HR before your last day.

Transition support is for people who lose a job through illness or lack of work, or whose fixed-term contract ends. It aims to speed your return to work, and you can ask before your last day. Employers with a collective agreement are linked to a transition organisation; find yours at hittaomstallningsorg.se (in Swedish). Without an agreement, apply to the public one, Nysteget.

Severance pay is not a legal right. It is negotiated between you and your employer, and a union representative can help. Your a-kassa counts severance as income for the period it covers, which moves your first day of unemployment benefit later. Register with Arbetsförmedlingen and apply to the fund on your first day without work anyway: the fund works out your earliest start date and sends you a decision, and the registration also protects your SGI.

Register with Arbetsförmedlingen on your first day of unemployment. It opens the way to unemployment benefit and protects your sickness benefit qualifying income (SGI) with Försäkringskassan. Arbetsförmedlingen explains how in its guide for people who have just become unemployed. For questions about keeping your SGI while out of work, ask Försäkringskassan (in Swedish).

Apply for unemployment benefit. Under the rules in force since October 2025, you qualify by being registered with Arbetsförmedlingen and looking for work, and by meeting an income requirement over a qualifying period. Fund membership is not a condition, but it sets your level: at least 12 months as a member can give 80% of your previous income, at least six months 60%, and shorter or no membership 50%, all up to a monthly ceiling, as Akademikernas a-kassa sets out (in Swedish). If you belong to no fund, you apply to Alfa-kassan (in Swedish). Joining a fund when you start a job is what secures the higher levels. Your fund publishes the current ceiling, and your union may offer income insurance on top.

Doctoral candidates. At Akademikernas a-kassa, a salaried doctoral position counts towards the income requirement but a scholarship does not. You count as unemployed once the thesis work is complete or you have definitively stopped, not during a study break.

Temporary lay-off (permittering) means your employer cuts your working time, sometimes to nothing, while you keep both your job and, as Arbetsförmedlingen describes it, your pay. The catch is that you must be ready to return to normal hours as soon as the employer can take you back.

Short-time work (korttidsarbete or korttidspermittering) is a state-supported scheme for employers hit by temporary, serious economic difficulties they could neither foresee nor avoid, such as a sudden collapse in demand. Your hours drop by a fixed step and your pay drops by a smaller share, with the state covering part of the cost. It needs a collective agreement that covers short-time work or, without one, written agreements with at least 70% of the staff at the workplace. Skatteverket handles the support (in Swedish).

In both cases you are still employed, so you do not register with Arbetsförmedlingen. Register only if you later lose the job.

• Three months to find work. You may stay in Sweden for three months after your last day of employment to look for a new job, as long as your permit is valid. If you find nothing and have no other grounds to stay, you must leave.
• A new job may need a new permit. Permits tied to an employer and occupation need a new application; permits tied only to an occupation do not if you stay in that occupation. You can start once you have applied, provided you apply before your current permit expires. The new job must meet the current requirements, which our work permit guide covers.
• EU Blue Card holders must tell Migrationsverket when their employment ends.
• Researchers whose research is complete can apply for a residence permit to look for work or start a business.

Browse open positions while you search.

The state wage guarantee covers pay you are owed when an employer goes bankrupt or enters business reorganisation: wages earned in the three months before the petition, the first month after a bankruptcy decision, holiday pay, and pay for your notice period. Employee benefits are not covered.

Skatteverket pays, but the bankruptcy trustee or reorganisation officer decides whether you qualify and how much, so take questions about the amount to them. The guarantee is capped at four price base amounts and covers at most eight months; Skatteverket publishes the current year's figure on its wage guarantee page.

To receive notice-period pay under the guarantee, you must be registered as a job seeker with Arbetsförmedlingen and send Skatteverket a declaration for each period. If you are still without work once the guarantee ends, apply to your a-kassa from your first day of unemployment.