Nordic candidates in the UK are rare and always have been.
The 2021 Census counted 87,525 people born in the five Nordic countries living in England and Wales: 44,942 working, 19,915 of them in London. (ONS Census 2021)
New NI number registrations by Swedes, Norwegians, Danes and Finns fell from 9,619 in the year to March 2019 to 3,288 in the year to March 2026. Down 66%. (DWP Stat-Xplore)
So, what are the 3 reasons for employers failing to attract Nordic candidates?
3) Assuming that there is a candidate supply in your area. More businesses are moving Nordic sales and support out of the Nordic zone to the UK. This has increased competition for those candidates that are available. The vote for Brexit had the immediate effect of reducing further the number of candidates seeking work in the UK. Far fewer new candidates are arriving to replace those who leave.
2) Uncompetitive pay and benefits. Most Nordic speakers are employed in jobs that do not use any language other than English. They see this as beneficial to building their English language skills and offering better employment options. Candidates are therefore unlikely to move into a Nordic speaking role unless pay and benefits are considerably better.
and at number 1
1) Your job opportunities are invisible to them. If you or your agency are relying on UK based advertising you will not be visible to most of the very small number of potential candidates. The chances of any job board, agency or employer building a database of potential employees from UK advertising is small. In short, your advertising does not appear on their devices.
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