Research on municipal activation programmes

31 According to Statistics Sweden (2007) Sweden has a total labour force participation of 80.6% 78% for women and 83.1% for men. 

Stockholm, concluding that there are no differences in the social assistance expenditures between city-councils with a strong focus on activation requirements compared to city-councils with less activation requirements. Milton (2006) does not find any positive effects on increased employment rates with strict job search requirements in Uppsala in the 1990s. 

While the research on this field is still very limited, there is little evidence that municipal activation policy in Sweden has been a great success in terms of employment and/or increased income for the participants. Despite the lack of positive findings, its development is rarely questioned and it is still politically very popular. At the municipal level, there are no signs of holding back in the development of new programmes. 

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