A year ago, over 70 intermediaries worked in Sandviken. Only 30 are coming to Gävle, where one of three offices in the county will now be located. 40 employees have quit and gone to other jobs.
- We staff the premises in Sandviken when we need to be there. Brokers will leave Gävle a couple of days a week. It's about a couple of office rooms that we will keep, says Mohamed Chabchoub, head of the Employment Service in Gävle.
Sandviken is the largest of the five offices now closed in Gävleborg. Hofors, Ockelbo, Ljusdal and Söderhamn are the others.
What will happen to the approximately 2300 unemployed in Sandviken, 12.1% of the workforce, nobody knows today. The government and the partnering parties agree to privatize the job search, but if and when a private agency comes to Sandviken, no one can tell.
- I think it's really sad that the mediation closes. We who live here in Sandviken and have young children - should you go to Gävle then if you are unemployed. That's bad, Jenny Dahl thinks.