Citizen-centred service design for unemployment support in the public sector : Exploring unemployed citizens’ needs

Currently, Swedish municipalities are moving towards citizen-centred service design. It means they aim to be more transparent, accessible, and responsive. However, many developments in the public sector have failed due to the lack of understanding of their citizen’s needs. Understanding citizens' needs is critical in social work, such as unemployment support, where citizens have direct contact with public services. This paper focuses on digital service design for the unemployment support department in a municipality, aiming to support citizens with job-seeking. The development of the digital service from a citizen-centred perspective here is an essential step toward significant improvements for better service delivery. The study aims to explore the current situation in a field and identify citizens’ needs, which could inform the design of a new citizen-centred service. For that, I conducted semi-structured interviews with 8 civil servants working with the unemployed and 7 citizens currently in the job-seeking process. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis. The findings resulted in five themes of citizens’ needs 1) informational needs, 2) educational needs, 3) communicational needs, 4) fairness needs, and 5) independence needs. I discuss the implications of these findings and their importance for further citizen-centred service design