Labour market forecasts and their use: Practices in the Scandinavian countries

The ongoing restructuring of today's labour markets and the swift changes in occupational structures and skill requirements generate a risk for unbalanced growth in the supply and demand for qualifications. This paper concentrates on the instruments employed in Scandinavia to identify labour market mismatches, understood as shortages of qualifications related to a certain occupation or education group. There are various actors engaged in the forecasting of labour market developments in the individual countries. The public employment services (PES) stand out as the main actor concerning the identification of short-term needs and the characteristics of current mismatches. The PES efforts are primarily carried out on the regional and/or local levels, and the central tools are comprehensive company surveys and ongoing regular contacts with the surrounding society. The information obtained is essential to adjust the focus of labour market training, which has the primary objective to support the employment offices in their efforts to smooth the matching process on the labour market.