There are two different types of employment:
- Employment of unspecified duration, which means that you have permanent employment. There is no final date for this employment.
- Temporary employment, which means employment for a limited period.
Employment contract
When you get a job, you have to sign an employment agreement or an employment contract. The employment agreement or the employment contract has to state:
your name and personal identity number
your workplace
the date when your employment starts
your work duties and title
what type of employment you have
the period of notice, i.e. the period from the day when you are told that you must leave your job until the day when your job ends
your wage
how much paid annual leave you are entitled to
If you fall ill when you are working
If you are an employee and fall ill, you have to report sick to your employer on the first day when you are ill. Your employer pays your sick pay for the first 14 days. The first day you are ill is a qualifying day. This means that you do not get any pay for that day. As of the second day when you are sick, you get 80 per cent of you wage.
If you are sick and off work for more than seven days, you must have a certificate from a doctor.
Looking for work
You can look for work in many different ways.
- You can go to Arbetsförmedlingen (the Swedish Employment Service) and look for a job in their adverts for job vacancies.
- You can contact staffing agencies and recruitment agencies. A staffing agency rents staff to various companies. A recruitment agency finds people for a company that wants to employ new staff.
- You can reply to adverts in daily newspapers or on the Internet.
- You can contact an employer by yourself.
- You can ask people you know.
Arbetsförmedlingen
Arbetsförmedlingen (the Swedish Public Employment Service) is a government agency that operates throughout the country. Arbetsförmedlingen tells you how you can look for a job. You can get information about various occupations and education and training programmes and be told how to write a job application.
Arbetsförmedlingen posts adverts of job vacancies on its website. You can find job vacancies in platsbanken (the vacancies bank) on Arbetsförmedlingen’s website.
When you have been given a residence permit, it is important to register as a jobseeker at Arbetsförmedlingen. Then you have the chance to be admitted to one of their programmes. You must go by yourself to one of Arbetsförmedlingen’s offices to register.
Own business
You need knowledge of administration and finances before you can start your own business in Sweden. If you want to start your own business, you can get help and advice from ALMI and Arbetsförmedlingen, for example. A lot of information about starting your own business is available on the Internet, for example at www.tillvaxtverket.se.