The Swedish labor market policy has long been distinguished by the fundamental conviction that unemployment is of primary concern to society and that the principal task for government is to keep it as low as possible. In order to combat the consequences of unemployment, the Government, acting within the framework of the general labor market policy, has pledged itself to take both general and selective measures to improve the employment prospects of jobseekers who are insecurely established in the labor market. Employment offices provide the services to the jobseekers. The basic assignment is the same, regardless of whether a jobseeker has a functional impairment or not.
Special attention is paid jobseekers with reduced working capacity.
A wide range of policy programmes aimed to support persons with disabilities in their rehabilitation process towards a durable anchorage in the labor market are available. A special programme, aimed to take advantage of new technology to increase the employability of disabled individuals, was initiated in 1985 on instructions of the government. The main goal of the system is to provide additional technological and training resources to the general labor market policy programmes for jobseekers with functional impairment. Within the framework of the project, a large number of people have been helped establishing themselves in the labor market. The need to expand the programme to comprise other groups of disabled jobseekers, such as people with learning disabilities, has been obvious and is also considered possible, due to the rapid development of information and communication technology.