Climate changes affect health
The warmer, wetter weather in Sweden will affect the health of people in Stockholm, according to a new report from the county administrative board in Stockholm municipality and the Karolinska Institute. The warmer seasons make the risk for the seasons of borrelia and TBE (tick-borne encephalitis) longer, up to four months. Add to that the fact that the south European insects that spread disease might like the warmer weather up north, for instance the sand fly. Warmer weather also means an increased risk for transmission of infection in the waters as well.

More women than men get jobs
For the first time in ten years, employment has increased more for women than for men, according to statistics from Arbetsförmedlingen (the Swedish Public Employment Service). The increase was most notable in the care sector, where 20 000 more women got jobs in 2011 compared with the 2010. “Last year it was mostly women who reaped the benefits on the job market,” says Marwin Nilsson, analyst at Arbetsförmedlingen. “We went through a weaker industry conjecture that mostly affected men, while employment increased strongly in the care sector.” And not just women, but foreign-born women seem to have been particularly “blessed” by this turn of events. However, almost 11% of these employed women still work part-time while wanting to work full-time. The statistics haven’t changed much since 2005. “It’s a problem if fewer employed people have to support more family members. If more women were to have the possibility to work longer hours, then we might not have to work until we are 75 years old,” says Josef Lannemyr, investigator at Arbetsförmedlingen Skåne. Skåne is the only big city region where employment for women has decreased, as opposed to Stockholm and Västra Götaland. “The job market has developed slower in Skåne in general, among other things because the number of highly educated people are lower in Skåne than in the other big city regions,” Lannemyr explains.

Sweden has shrunk
Our little country up north has become even smaller. At least on paper. Statistiska centralbyrån (Statstics Sweden) dove deep into size statistics and maps and came to the conclusion that Sweden’s area now is 528 447 square kilometers (5688156167979 ft²), which is 3000 square meters less than before, an area comparable to the island of Gotland (3124 square meters). What it means is that we have overestimated the size of our country. “We have better possibilities to correctly measure now,” says Stefan Svanström at Statistiska centralbyrån. Svanström is one of the two people who have calculated Sweden’s size; the last time that was done was 12 years ago.” One different approach was measuring the size of houses rather than parishes. Svanström says they measured the size of 4.2 million houses. The reason Sweden “shrank” is that the sea eroded the beaches along Sweden’s coasts, in particular outside the city of Ystad where the water at a sandy beach has moved 100 meters (328 feet) toward the shore in just 12 years. Does this mean geography books and encyclopedias need to be rewritten? Not exactly. Stefan Svanström doesn’t think it is necessary, as the numbers in the books are nothing more than estimates anyway.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Lindex.. True!
Hot, hot, hot! Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow is the spring model for Lindex, the Swedish fashion chain. Paltrow says she is happy with the collection, which features a lot of stripes. The fashion conscious star is posing for the spring collection, which is being described as “modern preppy”. “I love these clothes,” Paltrow says in a press release. “I’d never represent a brand that I wouldn’t wear myself. I like the sweater and the shorts that I was photographed in, and also the chinos and the suit. And I also love the stripes, I wear striped clothes almost every day.” Lindex’ last spring campaign featured another Hollywood star – Reese Witherspoon.