Gothenburg No. 1 – when the student gets to chose
Many of Sweden's students would rather work in Göteborg than in Stockholm after graduation, but middle-sized cities along the west coast like Varberg, Helsingborg, and Halmstad are even more attractive, according to a career study by Adecco where 500 students from all over Sweden were asked how they view their future careers.
Smaller cities risk losing many well-educated people in the future. Stockholm has the most jobs to offer, and Sweden’s students move there reluctantly for that reason.
49% of the country’s students are thinking about applying for work in Stockholm, while 53% are thinking about Göteborg, though the job market there isn’t even half as big as that of Stockholm. Among the smaller cities, Varberg is the most popular place to go, followed by Helsingborg, Halmstad, Nyköping, and Kalmar.
According to Adecco, Stockholm needs a constant flow of new academics in order for the supply not to run dry and threaten growth. “Stockholm has a potential problem that can diminish the powerful development that it has had the last decades,” says Charlotte Nordén, Marketing- and communications manager at Adecco. She believes that part of the explanation may be that two out of three students believe that housing expenses is an important factor when they chose where to work, and housing is expensive in the capital.
“The study gives the town districts useful information on how attractive they are to the students today,” says Andreas Leifsson, Senior analyst at Care of Haus, which conducted the study. Leifsson points out that many companies would benefit in establishing themselves in smaller cities, where they could find employees easier and at the same time be favored by a lower income level and cheaper premises. However, the smaller towns outside the bigger city regions (with populations of 50 000 and under) aren’t very attractive to students – only 7% said they’d want to live and work there, in spite of the fact that 30% of Sweden’s population live here or on the countryside.
