After the statistical problems: The government calls the SCB chief

Lena Micko says that she intends to call the Statistics Authority Statistics Sweden's Director General to get an account of SVT's new tasks. The Director General will also report the internal report on Statistics Sweden's statistical problems that the Authority published on Friday.

- It is serious if you do not have the right statistics. It really is important to have confidence in our authorities and the information that is produced, says Lena Micko.

SVT has, among other things, explained how Statistics Sweden published important social surveys on call center companies with many high school youth employees with major problems as a result. For example, there was no collective agreement.

- I think it's strange. Last week, we decided in the government to follow up on how authorities have handled the requirements for collective agreements in their procurement. Partly in light of the fact that it was a while after the decision was made, but also based on what it looks like in practice, that you see benefits from this, says the Minister of Civil Affairs.

What responsibility do you and the government have for what has happened in Statistics Sweden since you impose savings requirements on the authority?

- The government always has a responsibility to ensure that the assignments we give to the authorities are realistic and achievable. I do not feel that we have received reactions to the fact that we have made incorrect demands, says Lena Micko.

Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson tells SVT that the uncertainty surrounding Statistics Sweden's unemployment figures makes the government's work more difficult.

- There is a greater uncertainty in the unemployment figures than it normally is because they have a smaller selection due to the problems they have had with the procurement. This means that we may look a little more at other statistics than we do in normal cases.

How does it affect your work?

- For example, if you want to make breakdowns in the labor force survey and look at smaller groups then you have less security. So there are fewer opportunities to draw conclusions if, for example, you want to look at women of a certain age or people in a certain part of the country, says the finance minister.