Minimal engineering unemployment rates in Sweden should see fierce competition for former Saab technical white collar workers to rejoin the Trollhattan production site, as its new owners gear up for an autumn recruitment drive.
Sweden enjoys an jobless engineer rate of just 1.8%, but Saab’s main engineering union, Sveriges Ingenjorer, says it has had contact with new owners, National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), as the automaker looks to switch to electric vehicle production at Trollhattan.
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Sveriges Ingenjorer saw hundreds of its members made redundant following Saab’s bankruptcy at the end of last year, but extremely low unemployment among engineers in the country should see keen interest from NEVS to attract new recruits.
“We have had some contact with NEVS,” a Sveriges Ingenjorer spokesman told just-auto from Sweden. “We are very pleased both the production and especially the research and innovation will stay in Trollhattan.
“Because that is what our members do – they don’t produce cars but they innovate.”
The union spokesman revealed the engineer jobless rate in Sweden of 1.8% had seen very few of its members remaining out of work with many going to Volvo and the Gothenburg area.
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By GlobalDataBut he also added many of the labour body core still wanted to work in the automotive sector, despite strong demand from elsewhere.
“We know our members are very keen on working with cars,” said the union spokesman. “They love cars and I don’t think it matters what kind of car they make.
“If it is electric, that’s fine. They want to improve and innovate and many people are keen on doing that.”
NEVS recently told just-auto it was looking to recruit this autumn for a potential production restart next year of an electric 9-3 model that will initially look to tap into Chinese EV investment.
The Swedish/Chinese/Japanese consortium of NEVS’ final purchase of Saab is expected to complete later this summer, with the company aiming to turn the 9-3 into an electric car.
