Nordic countries faces major challenges to manage skills shortage in the labour markets. Demographic change and young people moving out contribute to an imbalance in the labour markets in the northern most north. A common Nordic labour market, with its cross-border mobility, shows that there is an extended labour market in the northern most Arctic region. This also means that if there is no available work in the local labour market, there might be an opportunity to work across the border in the neighbouring country. The common Nordic labour market has its own agreements and regulations for Nordic citizens and has roots reaching back to 1954. The revision of these regulations is a work in progress designed to facilitate cross-border mobility. From a Nordic context, the challenges presented by the common labour market relate both to the demographic character and the depopulation of the northern most peripheral regions. The biggest threat is the out-migration of young people, but challenges are also closely related to a segregated labour market.

This report is a part of the project Academic (Un) employment and Mobility in the Arctic North – A Joint Socially Responsible Approach (Academic North). The project is financed by Interreg Nord, Region Norrbotten and Lapin Liitto, and is a collaboration between Oulu University, Luleå University of Technology and the University of Tromsø. Data collection is based on available statistics and peer-reviewed publications on labour market mobility in the northern most region in Finland, Sweden and Norway.

This report has shown that there is a lack of official statistics about cross-border mobility in the three northern most regions studied in Finland, Sweden and Norway. Our findings have shown that knowledge about cross-border mobility is largely based on local knowledge, which makes this region even more visible as its own extended labour market. Experiences from this project shows that there still exist obstacles with cross-border mobility, even when working from distance in another Nordic country. This project, as well as the collaboration between the Nordic countries, also shows the importance of collaboration between the Arctic Five (Arctic5) universities in attracting and maintaining competence in the region.