Occupational Pensions and Unemployment Benefits in Sweden

This article focuses on two Swedish benefits: occupational pensions and unemployment benefits. Both have undergone interesting developments recently, partly relating to changes in the public social security system, partly to changes in the labour market. These changes have led the social partners at sectoral level to decide on different priorities when negotiating collective agreements or offering unilateral benefits to their members. The overarching aim of the article is to illustrate and explain the increasing activity at sectoral level regarding occupational pensions and unemployment benefits. However, there are changes in the labour market that the social partners have not managed to address, or that it might not even be their role to address. When a significant proportion of welfare benefits derive from collective agreements and membership of private organizations, this has implications for atypical and self-employed workers, that are further elaborated in the article.