Place, Kinship, and Employment

This study explores the magnitude and composition of kinship ties at Swedish workplaces. By analysing official register data and illustrating findings from interviews with HR personnel at different workplaces, the following questions are discussed: How much kinship concentration is there today on the labour market in a modern Western society such as Sweden? How is the kin-based selection of workplace members structured by place? The study is based on an analysis of individually connected register information on all workplaces in Sweden in 2012. The number of individual links between relatives and couples at an average workplace amounts to 14% of the number of employees as derived from 310, 000 couples and pairs of relatives among 4.3 million workers. So, even today in Sweden, kinship is a common phenomenon observable for most workers at most workplaces. Of all such connected pairs of kin at workplaces, more than a third contain counterparts living in the same household. A non-linear individual-level regression reveals that population density in the vicinity of the workplace is substantially related to kin density. Large agglomerations seem to coexist with low kin density workplaces. Although some level of kin membership is unavoidable especially at workplaces in sparsely populated places, removing this part still reveals that kinship above an unavoidable level seems to exist. The study contributes to the discussion of kinship in workplaces by examining the magnitude and composition of kinship ties in the whole work force and complementing findings with interviews.