Young people and graduates 2020–2025: the picture and the path to a first interview

Being young or newly graduated can feel like everyone is asking for experience you have not yet had a chance to build. The labour market for young people in Sweden has become tougher in recent years, but the picture is more nuanced than the headlines suggest. This article gives you the facts, the explanations and concrete steps for getting to your first interview.

Recognise yourself in ten seconds

Getting your first job is harder now than a few years ago. At the same time, youth unemployment is often misread. A large share of the young people counted as unemployed are studying full time and applying for jobs in parallel. That makes the figure look higher than many people assume, but it also means competition for entry-level jobs is genuinely real.

For you, getting to your first interview is therefore not just about market conditions. It is about how quickly you can show an employer that you are relevant, even if you lack the classic full-time credentials.

Where things stand right now

In Q2 2025, 212,000 young people aged 15 to 24 were unemployed in Sweden, according to the labour-force surveys from Statistics Sweden (SCB). That corresponded to 27.7 percent on a non-seasonally-adjusted basis. Of those, 147,000 were full-time students who were also looking for work. That is one important reason why youth unemployment in Sweden often looks unusually high.

At the same time, the labour market has not been easy for young people. SCB reported 147,500 job vacancies in Sweden in Q2 2025, which was 13 percent fewer than the same quarter the year before. When vacancies fall, competition gets harder, especially in roles where many people are looking for their first job or their first qualified full-time position.

In September 2025, EU youth unemployment stood at 14.8 percent. Sweden often sits above the EU average, but the comparison must be read carefully because more young people in Sweden are studying and looking for work at the same time.

Why the figures are so often misread

Youth unemployment does not mean that one in four young people in Sweden is shut out of both work and study. SCB explains that many of the young people counted as unemployed are at the same time full-time students looking for part-time work, summer jobs or their first job after graduating. That makes the rate look higher than it does for older groups.

That does not mean things are easy. When the number of vacancies falls and many people apply for the same junior roles, competition becomes properly hard. For a recent graduate, the problem is often not that there are no jobs at all, but that it is difficult to stand out when many candidates have a similar background.

It is therefore wrong to read the statistics in either of two extreme ways. They do not show that everything is hopeless. But they do not show either that high figures are merely a statistical misunderstanding. Both things are true at the same time.

What employers actually feel is missing in graduates

The biggest obstacle for many young people is not a lack of potential. It is a lack of clear evidence.

Employers hiring for entry-level roles tend to try to answer three questions quickly:

• Does the candidate understand which role they are applying for?
• Is there any concrete experience, however small, that shows the candidate can take responsibility?
• Is the CV clear enough for the recruiter to dare move forward quickly?

Many recent graduates have more relevant material than they realise, but it is not visible enough. Thesis projects, course work, internships, voluntary roles, side jobs and personal projects are often described too vaguely. The result is that the candidate looks thinner on paper than they really are.

Build a portfolio of evidence, not just a list of credentials

If you do not have several years of work experience, it helps to think less in terms of credentials and more in terms of evidence.

That means collecting concrete examples of things you have actually done, improved, built, analysed or been responsible for.

Thesis or course project

Do not just write the title and the course name. Describe what you did and what the result was.

Example: Built a prototype and benchmarked performance. Measured a 22 percent shorter load time compared with the previous solution.

Internship or side job

Even simple jobs can send strong signals about responsibility, structure and results.

Example: Responsible for cash reconciliation and end-of-evening close. Helped introduce a new routine that cut shrinkage by 15 percent.

Associations, voluntary work or side projects

These count when they show initiative, follow-through and responsibility.

Example: Built a simple website for a student association and increased sign-ups from 30 to 120 in four weeks.

The point is simple. You do not have to have held a full-time role to show that you create value.

Make your CV easier to understand

When you apply for entry-level roles, you compete with many candidates who look quite similar on the surface. Clarity then becomes a real advantage.

Use clear headings

Headings such as Profile, Work experience, Education, Skills and Projects almost always work better than more creative variants.

Write so that both software and people understand you

Many employers use recruitment systems to receive and process applications digitally. How much of that is automated varies, but an unclear CV is harder to read early in the process regardless of the exact technology. A simple, well-structured document makes it easier to see what you can do.

Mirror the wording of the ad when it fits

If the ad uses words like analysis, project management, coordination or customer relations, your CV should use the same terms when they genuinely describe what you have done.

Keep the layout simple

One column, clear dates, clear roles and standard headings will take you a long way. It is better to be easy to interpret than to look unique at the cost of readability.

What does the study path mean in practice?

It is also worth remembering that the picture differs between educational paths. For Sweden's higher vocational education (yrkeshögskolan), the follow-up of those who graduated in 2024 shows that 81 percent had work as their main occupation in autumn 2025, the year after graduation. That does not mean the path is easy for everyone, but it shows that the type of education and how closely it matches employer demand can play a big part in how quickly you find your way in.

The point is not that one path is always better than another. The point is that you need to understand how your own profile reads in the eyes of an employer and compensate where the signals are weaker.

Five steps for the first week

You do not have to solve everything at once. Start by creating control and direction.

If you use VIP CV, the tool should help you do exactly this work more clearly and more quickly. Not invent experience, but package what you have actually done better.

The hard part right now is not only that there are fewer jobs. It is that many young people send fairly similar applications without clearly showing why they specifically should move on. Those who more quickly build evidence, pick the right track and make their CV easy to understand are therefore in a stronger position, even in a tough market. The first interview rarely goes to the person with the longest experience. It often goes to the person who most clearly shows why they are relevant now.