ABSTRACT
This chapter studies whether the occupational structure in Sweden moved towards upgrading or polarisation between 2000 and 2015. Occupational wage level and skill requirements are both used as indicators of occupational change. The chapter also scrutinises the relationship between those indicators, as well as the relationship between occupational wage level and indicators of work tasks, concluding that the wage level of occupations is a reliable indicator of the impact of technological change on the occupational structure. Overall, the chapter reveals upgrading in the Swedish labour market with strong growth in employment in upper-level occupations, and weaker growth or decline in occupations further down the occupational wage structure. However, employment in the lowest-paid occupations has neither declined nor increased, making the picture of occupational change in Sweden more ambiguous. Moreover, taking the important distinction between private and public employment into consideration, private employment moves clearly in the direction of polarisation, while changes in public employment add to upgrading. The chapter also shows that various social categories are affected differently by occupational change. While females still constitute the large majority in the lowest-paid occupations, they also benefit from upgrading tendencies, with increasing numbers in higher-paid occupations. Males are more exposed to polarisation than females. Furthermore, foreign-born people are increasingly present in the lowest-paid occupations, and job quality and union presence are deteriorating in those jobs.
