Did you know you have a job?

If you are a Swede, a native with an academic degree and extensive experience – but still without a job – then according to Statistics Sweden you simply have fel. Maybe you thought you were without income, sending applications every day and turns every penny. Maybe several people around you are also unemployed. But statistics show that only 2,4% of graduates were unemployed in January 2025. So how dare you question?

One hour of paid work is full employment

And did you know that one (1) hour of paid work per week enough for you to no longer be considered unemployed? Congratulations – you are “employed”! You just might not notice it in your wallet.

📊 At the same time, the total unemployment rate in the country was 10,4% in January – the highest in several years. It affects not only academics, but also young people, foreign-born people, people with disability, women in part-time traps, the long-term unemployed and those who never even had the chance to qualify. Red Justice stands up for to the these groups.

System errors are the basis for unemployment

Because this is not about the individual's fault. It's about a system that:
– scrapped many labor market training courses for qualified professions

– difficult for part-time sick people to attend full-time labor market training courses

– turned security into stress

– refuses to eliminate unemployment through the public sector

– believes that “the market” will fix it, when in fact it often creates the problems

A regulatory state is the solution

• Full employment is possible.

• No need to be outside.

• It requires that the state creates money to what is needed: healthcare, schools, climate change, housing.

• Ordinary people should have low taxes, while those with large surpluses contribute with progressive taxation.

• Those who lack qualifications should not be punished – they should be supported to reach their full potential.

Low-paid, underqualified jobs solve nothing

A country doesn't get more jobs just by pressuring people to take low-paying jobs which requires less and less knowledge. It does not solve unemployment. It does not create a strong economy. When ordinary people have good purchasing power also on sickness benefits, sickness compensation and unemployment insurance, this creates jobs when they consume. If Sweden lowers welfare benefits and wages on jobs fall, purchasing power decreases and jobs disappear.

What works is good schools, functioning universities, vocational training and a strong public sector that helps people grow and a society that employs people regardless of ability. Education and security are needed for people to be able to take responsibility, learn more and contribute fully.

A country that wants to survive in global competition must invest in industry, smart agriculture and technology. It is that combination that create the economy of the future exists – no more low-paid, unskilled jobs where people wear themselves out without security.

Prosperity spreads

When a highly educated person has a good salary, others benefit from it too. She can hire craftsmen, buy food in local shops, go to the hairdresser, buy art or participate in culture. The money flows through to the whole society.

Sweden became a country of knowledge because the workers were so well off that their children had study time, free education and social security. Then the engineers, doctors, writers and business leaders of the future were born – to their parents were fine.

The statistics lie about unemployment

A society where everyone is safe and well creates more opportunities for everyone. An underpaid underclass is not sustainable. We need a society where everyone has a chance to contribute – for real.

It is not reality that is wrong. It is the methods of calculation that lie about reality. We know what we see: unemployment, understaffing and insecurity – in the middle of a society full of needs.

✊ Red Justice fights for a society where everyone has a place, where skills are utilized and where no one is left behind.

Both in USA and large parts of Europe, included Sweden, the official statistics underestimate the real unemployment. And yes – in almost the entire Western world, one (1) paid hour per week as employment.

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(I.e. USA:

• The most common figure (U-3) only counts those who actively looking for a job in the last four weeks.

• The broader one (U-6) also counts part-time employees who want to work more, but not insured for long-term care or imprisoned.

• People in prison (over 1,2 million) doesn't count at all – they disappear from the statistics.

• This means that, for example, a black man in a private prison in Alabama is not included in the unemployment figures, even though he never got a job.

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???????? EU and Sweden:

• The EU follows the ILO standard: one hour of work per week is enough to be classified as employed.

• Also in Sweden This applies to this. Statistics Sweden's Labour Force Survey (AKU) counts everyone who has worked at least one hour (including precarious gig jobs, invoicing, internships).

• The one who is unemployed, but not actively searching (e.g. due to exhaustion, illness, shame or loss of hope), considered “outside the labor force” – not as unemployed.

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🧩 Consequences of this:

• Statistics don't lie – but they don't tell the whole truth.

• Many people who lack a secure income or full-time job are not visible in the numbers.

• Poor, sick, elderly, unemployed who have stopped looking, imprisoned, women in part-time traps – many are hiding away.

• This means that actual unemployment is often 2–3 times higher than what the statistics show.

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(I.e. What can be done instead?

• Watch Employment rate (what percentage of the population has a real job?)

• Watch number of hours worked per capita.

• Question: do people secure jobs, with a living wage, and working hours they can handle?

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📌 So the answer is yes: one hour of paid work is enough to be considered "employed" in both the US, the EU and Sweden.
Men No one can live on one hour of work a week. And many of those who do not work at all disappear from the statistics – even though they live in poverty.