Major green industrial investments have been placed where natural resources are available and energy supply is good, but where demographics are challenging based on an ageing population, fewer people of working age and many young people moving out of the region. Skills needs are high in almost all sectors and strong population growth is necessary to cope with the social transition resulting from industrial start-ups. Forecast population growth and geographical mobility in the labour market are currently insufficient to meet needs. The PES has an important role in terms of skills provision, but cannot solve the challenges on its own, but needs to create effective cooperation structures. The challenges are so extensive and development needs to take place on several fronts simultaneously, which places demands on new or greatly streamlined working methods and methods to implement in collaboration with key actors in, for example, municipalities, within the education system and among employers in the region. It is part of the Swedish Public Employment Service's mission to develop its employer work, to strengthen its support for skills provision in large business start-ups, including through strategic collaboration with relevant actors, to promote geographical and occupational mobility and to take measures to reduce long-term unemployment. The agency is also tasked with promoting diversity and gender equality, as well as working to improve the labour market situation for people with disabilities. The work in the preliminary study will contribute to all these ongoing development work. In the preliminary study, various possibilities to promote geographical mobility will be analyzed and explored in more detail in order to determine which methods and working methods will be tested in an implementation project in the next step. The preliminary study also aims to build the collaboration structures that can promote this work and that can strengthen the employers' capacity in Norrbotten and Västerbotten to recruit staff to cope with the ongoing industrial and societal transformation.
