The closure is part of a planned settlement where a total of 22 offices will be closed in Västra Götaland. In total, about 200 people have been laid off in the region, which according to the latest survey had 93,000 unemployed persons.

- The idea is that everyone who is newly registered at the employment office gets their first contact remotely through the web, telephone and chat, says Hans G Larsson, press secretary at the Employment Service.

"There is a concern at the municipalities"

He says that a digitalisation of the system has been planned for a long time, but because of the budget cuts and the January agreement, the process has had to be accelerated.

- Our hope is that the digital contact with the employment office will become as natural for private individuals as it currently is for example with a bank or insurance fund, he says.

What does the contact with the municipalities look like?

- Prior to that closure, we have talked to the municipalities and we have noticed that there is a general concern that the municipalities will receive increased costs if they are forced to take over parts of the business, and that it may be more difficult for those who are far from the labor market to get into contact with employment agencies, says Hans G Larsson, press secretary at the Employment Service.

"I look gray on the matter"

Mellerud is one of the municipalities that is on the Employment Service's winding-up list. The municipal council's chairman Morgan E Andersson (C) looks at the matter twofold.

- For two years we have already started work on a more digitized collaboration with the employment services and are well prepared for the current structural change, but I am still worried that knowledge of our area's expertise may disappear because of this, he says. .

He further believes that with the ongoing change it is also important that there are clear boundaries between what is included in the municipality's responsibility and what is the state's.

- We as a municipality are prepared to take responsibility, but if that responsibility is really the state's then the municipalities must receive compensation for their work, I see gray in the future nothing is black or white, he says.