Which degrees actually lead to jobs in Sweden?

Most degrees in Sweden lead to work. In UKÄ's 2024 statistics, seven of nine broad fields have more than 8 in 10 graduates established in the labour market about a year after exam. But the field you choose moves that number far more than the university you choose, and one field sits dramatically below all the others.

Etableringsgrad, the establishment rate, is UKÄ's official measure: the share of graduates with a stable foothold in the labour market 1 to 1.5 years after exam. It is not a salary ranking and not a prestige list. It answers one plain question: a year on, are the graduates from this education actually working?

The rates cover professional degrees (yrkesexamina), the programmes that lead to a specific occupation: engineers, lawyers, teachers, nurses. General bachelor's and master's degrees are not tied to one occupation, so they are not in these rows.

The 38% in design and the arts does not mean those educations are a mistake. It means the path after exam runs through portfolios, networks and freelance work far more than through job ads. If that is your field, plan for it from year one instead of discovering it at graduation.

And the difference between universities inside a field is real but modest, usually a few percentage points. Choosing the field is the big decision. Choosing the school fine-tunes it.

If your field is high on the list, the degree will do a lot of the carrying, and your job is to add what it cannot prove: real experience, shown skills, languages.

If your field is lower, the number is a planning tool, not a warning sign. Start building visible proof early: projects, part-time work, anything you can show. That record, not the thin first CV, is what makes the difference in the first years.