Objective: To give an overview of an economic crisis in Sweden and its health consequences for employed and unemployed groups together with some health-related data from participants in labour market programmes.
Outcome and conclusions: During the first half of the 1990's, Sweden was hit by a pervasive crises characterised by steeply increasing unemployment and growing job insecurity. Long-term survey data show that somatic well-being continued to improve in the population, while psychological well-being deteriorated, and this deterioration was of a similar magnitude among unemployed and employed groups. Two non-traditional labour market programmes for unemployed individuals are briefly described. Both programmes resulted in some positive effects on subjective health, which, however, were not corroborated by psychophysiological data. It is argued that the employment-unemployment dichotomy can be replaced by a dimensional view on labour market connection, as insecure jobs may have as detrimental health effects as open unemployment. Impediments to empowerment in the labour market programmes are discussed.