One in three young women work alone in unsafe situations
The survey puts one operational question in front of employers: who can reach the worker, and how fast, when trouble starts?
Being alone at work does not always mean an empty building. A worker can be surrounded by customers or patients and still have nobody able to help when a situation turns threatening.
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In Sweden’s 2024 survey, 34 percent of women aged 16 to 29 said they had worked alone in a situation that could become unsafe or threatening at least once during the previous year. The comparable figure for men aged 50 to 64 was 20 percent. Among the young women, 26 percent also reported violence or threats.
Among women aged 16 to 24, trade accounts for 23 percent of jobs, care for 19 percent and hotels and restaurants for 15 percent. In each sector, a new worker may deal with customers, patients or guests before a colleague is close enough to intervene.
Arbetsmiljöverket’s lone-work definition includes social isolation: other people may be present, yet the worker cannot count on help in a critical moment. Employers must assess how quickly help can arrive, provide a working alarm route and avoid lone work when it creates greater danger than working together.
The agency’s 2026 research review found no current Swedish studies tracking how lone work affects young workers’ health or safety. Sweden has measured who reports the exposure, but not its effect on them. Employers do not need to wait for that research to ask who answers, and how fast, when a young worker calls.
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