Report: Tech is Sweden's new basic industry
A new report from TechSverige shows that the tech industry has established itself as a new base for the Swedish economy. The tech industry is broad and larger than what we have traditionally called IT and telecom. It also includes companies in, for example, computer games, health (healthtech), finance (fintech) and education (edtech).
A summary shows that the industry's contribution to GDP has grown by as much as 1 300% since 1981. In 2020, it amounted to a total of SEK 281 billion and was almost as large as the contribution of the traditional Swedish basic industries combined.
The report also shows that the tech sector is a job-creating industry. More than 60% of the new jobs created in Sweden between 2006 and 2016 were in the IT-intensive sectors. In total, the sector employed around 216 000 people in 2018.
The industry's contribution to Swedish exports has also increased dramatically, by almost 1,200% since 1998 and amounted to SEK 140 billion in 2020. This corresponds to over six percent of Sweden's total exports and is a higher share than for traditional basic industries such as paper, pulp and paper waste, metals, and plastics and rubber.
Read the report here:
Tech - Sweden's new basic industry