Sweden

How Sweden Puts Workforces At The Center Of Economic Plans

Sweden tops the Talent sub-index because of its significant investment in research, professional upskilling opportunities, and educational reforms to improve the digital competencies of its workforce. The government is inserting artificial intelligence at the center of many upskilling initiatives by collaborating with several prominent tech firms on training opportunities.

Talent

Sweden is committed to digital upskilling and job mobility with expansive government initiatives

Sweden is investing heavily in adapting its education system to build more digital skills. Sweden’s 2027 National Digitalization Strategy aims to develop digital skills for school-aged children, upskill school staff’s digital capabilities, and increase the number of higher education students studying fields in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from about 80,000 now to at least 90,000 by 2035.

These investments already are paying off. More than 66% of Swedes aged 16 to 74 have at least basic digital skills — ranking Sweden sixth out of the European Union’s 27 members.

These initiatives can serve Sweden’s broad goal of providing more mobility within the job market: Sweden announced plans in March 2025 to improve job-matching services and monitor the progress of job seekers. And in June 2025, the government vowed to cut red tape and implement tax relief for infrastructure, research, and energy work to keep businesses in the country.

AI lies at the center of many upskilling initiatives

Sweden is working across the public and private sectors to build an AI-skilled workforce. In the public sector, a roughly $700 million plan from the Swedish government will invest in initiatives that center on health, life sciences, AI, and graduate schools for AI-related topics. Elsewhere, the government’s AI Commission proposed in November 2024 various initiatives for AI education and upskilling, like giving $10 million per year between 2025 and 2029 to public school education programs.

Sweden’s national center for AI aims to work with the private sector in upskilling workforces and educating future workforces in all fields, attracting talent to work in the AI field itself, and drawing international talent to Sweden. These initiatives, in the center’s view, require a joint investment among Swedish organizations and businesses to share best practices and ensure that AI benefits all sectors.

Indeed, one tech firm announced in June 2025 plans to build an AI center in Sweden that will offer upskilling programs. A separate tech firm announced plans in 2024 to spend roughly $3.2 billion on Swedish cloud and AI infrastructure and trainings for 250,000 Swedes in AI skills.

Sustainability

Sweden’s sustainability initiatives are creating more jobs

As part of Sweden’s plan to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 and then achieve negative emissions, the country’s Energy Agency established a roughly $79 million fund called the Industrial Leap to help the industrial sector decarbonize and create new jobs. It’s part of Sweden’s bid to become a global leader in providing fossil-fuel-free industrial products.

In addition to reducing emissions, the country’s strategy also calls to utilize bioeconomy methods for production, in which natural processes are used to generate energy and industrial products. Sweden’s carefully managed forests, for example, provide the main supply of wood products to the European Union. One estimate finds that Sweden’s woodland bioeconomy has an export value of nearly $20 billion per year and offers high-tech job opportunities for thousands of Swedes.

Resilience

Sweden’s strengthening digital infrastructure gives more citizens internet access

The EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility plan also has bolstered Sweden’s digital infrastructure network, providing a combined $567 million to accelerate broadband access to sparsely populated areas and upgrade digital services in public administration.

Sweden’s connectivity infrastructure indicators, from 5G internet to fiber-optic networks, are above the EU average, according to one EU study.