Our second storyteller is a woman, living in Kiruna, working above ground. Here’s a story about leaving, coming to, staying in Kiruna:
– Well, if you live up here, if you stay here, first of all, you like to be outdoors in nature. There’s no high-life, there is no shopping here. This is a probably why of all the youths growing up here, it’s often the girls who move out, the boys stay, usually. But very, very many have their cabins. […]
– It’s a challenge to get people to educate themselves here because many…, it’s tempting to directly start working here (at the Company), particularly for the boys who might be tired of studying. At the outset, to get a salary of 35000 SEK (appr. €3500, before taxes) each month, and then try to convince them to study at the university, that’s difficult, once they come here.
– So it becomes a matter of supply (of workers and managers) to LK(AB), that there are not enough educated (people), local workplaces…
– Yes, it’s very difficult to, for example, get hold of geologists and rock engineers, and so on. Because it’s not only a matter of getting them to come back (to Kiruna), they must also have somewhere to live, and we have a housing shortage. But geologists, I know it’s very difficult (to recruit), but there’s a shortage of them all over the world.