Northvolt: A global talent brain drain or a boost for Swedish impact firms?

The careers section of Northvolt's website is packed with inspirational stories of talented employees from across Sweden and around the world. Passionate so-called "Northvolters" who relocated to the small riverside city of Skellefteå, home to just 78,000 people and surrounded by forest. In their words, they made the move to work for Europe's biggest electric battery factory in order to tackle "meaningful challenges" and take on roles characterised by "purpose", "growth" and "decarbonisation".

But the Northvolt dream has turned into a nightmare for many international employees in recent months. Last autumn the impact company announced it was laying off around a quarter of its workforce including 1,100 people in Skellefteå.

For many from outside the EU, that meant finding a new job within three months or being forced to leave the country, due to Swedish migration rules. The announcement that the battery factory has filed for bankruptcy has now created an uncertain future for the more than 3,000 other employees who clung on to their jobs last year.

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An impact brain drain?

Sourcing data on exactly how many highly skilled staff who worked for Northvolt (or other related enterprises affected by the cuts) have already left Sweden is tricky. But there's been a steady stream of stories in national and local media about international families unwillingly giving up homes and school places in northern Sweden after laid-off workers were unable to find new roles, especially if they didn't speak Swedish. More than 100 are reportedly being threatened with deportation.

Anja Palm, a business manager at Skellefteå municipality tells Impact Loop its population data suggests around 800 residents have left the area since October, although that figure includes the partners and children of laid-off employees.

She agrees this is a signal that some talented impact workers have already taken jobs outside the region or abroad.

"It's a very stressful situation," she says, referring to the rules for workers from outside the EU having a limited timeframe to source work. "So, if they find a job elsewhere they will take it immediately, instead of staying."

If they find a job elsewhere they will take it immediately

An 'opportunity' for other green transition players?

On the flipside, Palm believes that there is a strong appetite from many who've built lives in the region to try and stay put, and says the municipality has heard "from a lot of employers" looking for similar skillsets, who have already recruited ex-Northvolters.

These include Metso (which produces carbon-cutting technologies for the mining and metals industries), Afry (an engineering company aiming to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable society) and Boliden (a mining company focussed on providing metals with a low carbon footprint).

In October and November the municipality organised four "meet-and-match" events designed to connect 85 regional businesses with people affected by the Northvolt job cuts. Its data suggests at least 50 positions were filled as a direct result of the jobs fairs, and at least 50 other posts in the area were filled in the same time frame.

Companies further afield who have benefited from Northvolt's demise include low-carbon steel manufacturer Stegra (formally known as H2 Green Steel), which is based in Boden, around 150km north of Skellefteå.

"We have recruited some people from Northvolt and we, as well as other companies in the region, continue to look at what talent we can keep in the green industrial transition in the north," Karin Hallstan, Head of Communications at Stegra, tells Impact Loop.

However she says the company is choosing not to comment on the potential implications of Northvolt's latest bankruptcy announcement.

Hitachi Energy, a global renewable energy company with more than ten locations around Sweden, says it has recruited 50 employees who lost jobs at Northvolt last year.

"People are in general willing to relocate within both Sweden and Europe," its HR Director Martin Sangve tells Impact Loop.

However he is at pains to describe Northvolt's demise as a potential benefit or opportunity for other carbon-cutting impact companies in Sweden.

"We, of course, would have preferred to have them [Northvolt] as partners, colleagues, customers moving forward," he says. "But in this event, of course, we are trying to do our best to find solutions for the talented colleagues over at Northvolt and securing their competences [remain] here in Sweden."

The future of 'brand Sweden'

As Northvolt's future – and the future of its remaining workforce - hangs in the balance it remains uncertain whether the company's ongoing troubles will have a deeper impact on Sweden's impact sector.

The Nordic country has long punched above its weight when it comes to social and sustainability data.

A 2023 report by Dealroom, which collates data on start-ups suggested almost three-quarters of venture capital funding to Swedish companies went to firms with a focus on impact, compared to an average of just over a third across Europe. Plus, as Impact Loop reported in January, three science parks recently launched a new "soft-landing" programme, which hopes to attract international small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to northern Sweden, creating a Nordic version of Silicon Valley.

Still, some Swedish commentators and academics have argued that Northvolt's demise could affect the country's global image as an icon for green innovations. Andreas Cervenka, an economics commentator for the popular Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet has repeatedly argued that international investors may be hesitant to invest in similar projects in northern Sweden. Others, like Madelaine Eriksson, a geography senior lecturer at Umeå University, have argued that investors and politicians alike got too swept up in Northvolt's "save-the-world" mentality and that the company may have damaged Sweden's reputation by taking risks and expanding too rapidly.

European rivals

With Northvolt's demise continuing to make global headlines, there is, of course, also a danger that international talent – whether already based in Sweden or not – won't want to gamble with applying for roles at smaller firms in the region, especially amidst ongoing high levels of unemployment amongst skilled foreign migrants in Sweden.

Northvolt already has both European and global competitors which could potentially absorb talent hoping for roles in the green transition. ACC (Automotive Cells Company) operates facilities in France and Germany, whilst CATL, the Chinese battery giant, has expanded its European footprint with its German gigafactory near Erfurt. Other players include Verkor in France, InoBat in Slovakia, and Britishvolt's assets in the UK, recently acquired by Sunwoda Electronic.

This is a matter of days and weeks in order to keep talent in the region

Back in Skellefteå Anja Palm says she's still hopeful that many questions about the long-term impact of Northvolt's demise won't have to be answered, if the company manages to find a new owner.

"Our number one option is for someone to step in as a new owner so it can continue as a new battery manufacturer - that's also the ambition from the government," she tells Impact Loop. "But that needs to come quickly otherwise people will leave… this is a matter of days and weeks in order to keep talent in the region."