How an Email Snafu Led to 61,000 People Storming an Employment Office

By Geoff Weiss | Feb 27, 2014

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

A different kind of syndrome has recently thrown Stockholm residents into a tizzy: unemployment.

When a public employment office mistakenly sent a recruitment email to every registered job seeker in the city — some 61,000 people — hopeful crowds turned up in droves.

But the email was actually only intended for about 1,000 job seekers, reports Reuters, and so local police had to be called to quell angry mobs.

Given Sweden’s current unemployment rate of 8.6 percent, thousands of people arrived in an alley where the office is located in downtown Stockholm. With an ominous energy buzzing, staff sounded the alarm, but no arrests were ultimately made.

Clas Olsson, acting director of the employment office, told a local newspaper that he was unsure whether the email snafu had been a human or technical error.

Related: Employment Trend for 2014: Miserable Millennials

A different kind of syndrome has recently thrown Stockholm residents into a tizzy: unemployment.

When a public employment office mistakenly sent a recruitment email to every registered job seeker in the city — some 61,000 people — hopeful crowds turned up in droves.

But the email was actually only intended for about 1,000 job seekers, reports Reuters, and so local police had to be called to quell angry mobs.

Given Sweden’s current unemployment rate of 8.6 percent, thousands of people arrived in an alley where the office is located in downtown Stockholm. With an ominous energy buzzing, staff sounded the alarm, but no arrests were ultimately made.

Clas Olsson, acting director of the employment office, told a local newspaper that he was unsure whether the email snafu had been a human or technical error.

Related: Employment Trend for 2014: Miserable Millennials

Geoff Weiss

Former Staff Writer
Geoff Weiss is a former staff writer at Entrepreneur.com.

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