Two weeks ago, the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson announced a record profit and predicted that the hard times were over and they were taking on more workers. In a small town like Nynäshamn, this was welcome news as Ericsson is the main employer here.

Yesterday afternoon, workers were called to a meeting to discuss the implementation of the new 3G technology, only to discover that the entire Ericsson plant here is to close and 463 people are now out of work. The town is already reeling from the shock news earlier this year that the navy's submarine base at nearby Muskö was moving to Karlskrona with a loss of 1,000 jobs (500 of those in Nynäshamn) and now, out of the blue, without any warning this has happened. We have 13,000 people in Nynäshamn, so the sudden loss of so many jobs will have a huge impact.

We have many good friends as well as acquaintances who work at both Muskö and Ericsson and now we are wondering how they will manage. These people have mortgages to pay, a family to feed and in several cases, both husband and wife have now lost their jobs. The mood in the town is very subdued and shocked. This will have a negative effect on other business - restaurants, cafés, hairdressers, clothing shops, book shops, car dealer, florists and other small shops will feel the pinch along with local firms who do business with these two large employers. The fear is that the town may become a ghost town and that plans to upgrade the highway and railway from Stockholm will now be shelved. The social costs here will also be high as people struggle with unemployment and a drastically reduced lifestyle.

Yes, Nynäshamn is a beautiful town, but scenery and beauty do not pay the bills.



Today, we went downtown to check out the local book sale and it was nowhere near as busy as it has been in previous years. No queues in the snow, no big crush in the shop or library. The news from Ericsson put a dark cloud over everything. We did manage to buy 36 books at bargain prices, so we were very pleased with our haul. Both of us are avid readers, so we can never have too many books.

The winter weather has finally settled in, with temperatures sinking to -10C this evening and snow and wind abounding. Spring along with hope seems a long way off tonight.