Maritime labor market - Recent graduates marine officers’ perception of the labor market in shipping

Swedish shipping is internationally characterized with quality, safety and knowledge. Despite this, Swedish shipping is exposed to competition in the international market. During the financial crisis that occurred in 2008, where a strong global economy changed to a recession, affected the export industry and Swedish shipping. For various reasons, Swedish shipping companies have begun to flag out their vessels and this has led to fewer jobs in the Swedish merchant fleet. Therefore examines if the Master mariners and Marine engineers with education in Sweden are working within shipping. Henceforth the Swedish crew severe competition in the international market because they entail higher salary cost than other nationalities. Because of the severe competition in combination with a decreasing Swedish merchant fleet, it is interesting how the Swedish sailors perceive the labor market. Therefore, the report examines how Master mariners and Marine engineers perceive the labor market in shipping and how they feel that it has changed since the time they applied for the training. Furthermore, Master mariners and Marine engineers perception of shipping labor market is compared with Arbetsförmedlingens, the Employment Service in Sweden, employment forecast in shipping. The survey was conducted with a web-based questionnaire distributed on social media Facebook, where people with Swedish degree in Master mariner and Marine engineer were asked to answer questions about the maritime labor market and their work situation. In conclusion 81.9 percent were working within shipping. The results also showed large individual differences in how the maritime labor market is perceived but the majority opinion is that the labor market in shipping has become more difficult. Finally, it was 23 percent of the Marine engineers and 23 percent of the Master mariners who experienced labor market consistent with Arbetsförmedlingens employment forecast for shipping