Graduate job prospects weaken across Swedish education routes

New graduates are finding it harder to gain a firm foothold in Sweden’s labour market, with declines across university, higher-vocational, folk-high-school and upper-secondary vocational routes.

Six months after finishing in 2024, 80% of university graduates and 73% of higher-vocational graduates met Statistics Sweden’s establishment measure, down from 86% and 83% in 2022.

The sharpest subject-level slide was in data and IT: the 12-month figure for higher-vocational graduates fell from 83% to 67% between 2022 and 2024. Health and social-care routes stayed comparatively stable.

SCB’s measure is stricter than simply having any job. It uses annual work-related income of at least three income base amounts, roughly SEK 17,000–20,000 a month depending on the follow-up date.

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