Variations in fertility have caused a problematic situation in Sweden among other European countries. According to the Council of Europe we are facing an economic and demographic challenge, when the baby boomers of the 1940?s are retiring. Economists have for a long time studied the connection between economic factors and fertility, and several studies have found a correlation between business cycles and birth rates. This connection is again of current interest 2008, when a financial bubble bursts at the same time as a baby boom occurs.

This qualitative study aims to examine what career opportunities the Swedish employment service Arbetsförmedlingen can provide, as well as how the employees perceive their career development opportunities. Furthermore, we have touched on what it is that makes employees feel satisfied with their job and workplace, and also stay in the organization. The study was conducted on one of Arbetsförmedlingen?s offices in northern Sweden and the informants consisted of six employment agents, an executive assistant and a head of division. The result of the study has been analyzed using theories within the field of career development.

Age is one of two new discriminatory grounds in Swedish law. EU took official position against age discrimination by means of Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation. From January the 1st 2009 it is, by Diskrimineringslag (2008:567), illegal in Sweden to discriminate anyone based on age. The law covers all age groups and is applicable to various fields in society. Age differ from other discriminatory grounds since everyone has an age.

Previous research has shown that there is a relationship between trust and organizational commitment. Our research questions were if the three trust-variables ability, benevolence and integrity predict organizational commitment differently. Further we examined if the length of employment affected the relationship between benevolence and organizational commitment. Due to the fact that past studies has shown that benevolence develop during a longer period of time than do the other trust-variables. We made a survey using questionnaires (n=50) in a ?caretaking facility? and using a multiple regression analysis we found that ability was a significant predictor (p=0.032) for organizational commitment.

The energy sector of modern time is currently faced with several challenges. These are both production oriented and environmental oriented in nature. The energy of the future is intended to support an increasing demand while at the same time reduce its environmental affection. This stresses a development towards production methods of renewable energy. Among the existing methods, biogas is presented as an attractive alternative.

Efficient energy use in the housing sector is crucial for achieving a sustainable society. The expansion of this sector only represents a fraction of the existing houses, hence it?s within the existing houses the potential for energy savings lie. This potential has been analyzed in order to determine if it?s possible to cut the current energy demand in half.

Since several rules of law have a consideration of age, the Swedish labor law collides in many ways with the prohibition of age discrimination. The employment directives of EU were implemented in the member countries after the shift of the millennium. Sweden was the last member to introduce age as a ground of discrimination in its legislation. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether the Swedish regulations, regarding age discrimination and its application, is compatible with the EU.  The aim is also to investigate what is required to exclude the prohibition of age discrimination. The labor law provisions concerning the retirement age given in 32 a and 33 §§ LAS, priority rules according to 22 § LAS and the collectively agreed holiday benefit, which is regulated according to a worker's age, is to be investigated to see if they actually qualify for the exclusion of the prohibition against age discrimination. Furthermore, the paper intends to describe if the Swedish legislation has taken account of the research available on the subject of "age" and ?age discrimination?.

Information technology (IT) with its enormous capacity involves more and more in our daily activities and public sector is using IT to make their activities more efficient. The government goal with electronic government (e-government) among other things is increasing the availability and service to the public as well as improving the democratic process. Democracy can be strengthened by involving citizens in public decision making process but this goal has not been achieved yet and the development of e-government has mostly been focused on improving efficiency within administration and electronic services (e-services). Promoting the democratic process has been postponed in the development of e-government because of the lack of political commitment and decision. Digital divide is also preventing public sector to promote democracy with the support of IT.

This study was commissioned by the Västerbotten sports federation, whocalled for an overview of the policies that the municipalities inVästerbotten work after in the field of sport. The study aimed to identifysports policy programs or documents that have been produced by themunicipalities, and how they work with them. Furthermore, the studyhighlights the municipality?s politicians reasoning aboutsport andrecreation-sector,and how their sport policy-work was practiced. The datacollection was based on seven interviews and document-collections fromthe 15 municipalities.

The purpose is to analyze if the students have any use of their computer education at a senior high school level or if there is a demand for them to proceed studying. Does the students background have any importance or is it their own motivation that makes the student advance to higher education.In this report we ask ourselves the question, if the students have any use of the knowledge gained at senior high school in computer studies at a higher level. Do the students have any chance for employment based on their senior high school grades in computer studies after graduation?  Do the schools that follow the senior high school guidelines within programming and databases give these students an advantage towards those that have not received the same fundamental education?The method used for the survey is a group questionnaire.  The questionnaire was distributed at one and the same time and then collected to examine the results. The survey results showed that students who seek work based only on their senior high school grades, received only a temporary position for different lengths of time.

This thesis studies whether private equity owned firms within the Swedish welfare sector distinguish themselves in terms of tax planning and short-termism from a control group consisting of other privately owned welfare firms. For the first time, the comparison is made on the entire welfare sector, between 14 matched pairs within education, health care and elderly care. We use financial metrics associated with tax planning and short-termism in sign tests to examine whether the private equity owned firms differ from our control group. The financial metrics tested are actual and paid tax rates, level of interest, book-tax gap, investments, personnel expenses per employee, and cash earnings. We find that the private equity owned firms in terms of tax planning only differ in the level of interest, while no notable differences are found in terms of short-termism..

A big part of assets in companies today consists of their employees knowledge and skills. In today?s society knowledge insensitive companies are increasing. The survival of these companies lie in the knowledge of their employees, which make it of great importance that knowledge transfer is managed properly. Knowledge transfer is important since it makes it possible for co-workers to apply old solutions to new problems that arise, using knowledge that already existing within the organization.

Tourism is often being viewed as one of the worlds largest sectors and a great contribution to growth and development. There is a large motivation amongst developing countries to promote themselves as a tourist destination, since they expect the tourism to generate economic growth. The government of Thailand has been promoting tourism since 1960, and the number of foreign visitors has increased from 100 000 back then to 13.5 million in 2006. The purpose of this paper was to investigate weather the increasing tourism industry in Thailand has pulled resources away from other sectors of the economy towards the tourism sector, and in that way harming Thailand?s international competitiveness and causing deindustrialization.

Despite Sweden's ranking as one of the least corrupt countries in the world, recent studies suggest that the prevalence of corruption in the private sector is growing, now approaching international levels. Over the past couple of years, Sweden has witnessed a growing number of scandals involving unethical behavior on the part of its corporate sector. Corruption has gained the attention of authorities, legislators and the public - putting the private sector under pressure to take action to prevent such corporate misconduct. As a result, companies increasingly prioritize strategies and policies aiming to prevent corruption. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of the role of leadership in such preventive work.

The purpose of this essay is to acquire variables that explain and may be used as a base for wage estimation in the private sector in Sweden. The factors that are assumed to have an impact on wage estimation are based on earlier Swedish and international studies. Business survey data, which is based upon monthly questions to firms in various sectors of the Swedish economy posed by the Swedish National Institute of Economic Research, will be analyzed to find out weather they have an impact on Swedish wage settings or not. Tests including business survey data are yet rarely frequent, why this essay will be some kind of a pioneer within the area. To estimate significant factors that influence wage setting in Sweden, three different wage equations have been modeled and tested with a regression model.