In the whole country, a total of 2,419 people were notified of dismissal in the first two weeks of September, new statistics from the Swedish Public Employment Service show.
The corresponding figure for Västra Götaland shows 715 people who have been notified.
A figure that, according to Jens Sandahl, section manager at the analysis department Arbetsförmedlingen, stands out compared to the rest of the country.
- It is a high figure if you compare with other regions.
What it depends on is impossible to answer.
It is enough that a few large companies give notice to reach that figure and may be a coincidence, he says.
"Unusually high figure"
On the other hand, he believes that a possible explanation for the increase from August, when a total of 469 people were notified of dismissal in Västra Götaland, is that August is a month when it does not happen as much in society and within companies, compared to September.
- August is a summer month and really a bad month to compare with.
But 715 is an unusually high number, there is no denying it, he says.
The corona pandemic continues to affect
According to the Swedish Public Employment Service's statistics, a total of 98,936 people have been notified of redundancies throughout the country since the beginning of March.
In Västra Götaland, the corresponding figure is 18,064 people.
According to Jens Sandahl, there is no doubt that the corona pandemic is behind the high numbers.
However, he believes that the increase in recent weeks is not close to what it looked like at the beginning of the corona pandemic.
- The pandemic affects the labor market to a great extent and it continues to be seen in our warning figures now that the summer is over.
715 warnings in two weeks is high, but we saw the really high warning figures in March and April and it does not look so bad now, he says.