During the current economic downturn, finally some positive employment news is coming out of Sweden: Haxriket i Norden, a company based in Ahus, is looking to hire 20 witches to staff its phones and internet website. The company specialises in fortunes, predictions and other advice at a price of just USD 2.45 per minute.

The Local newspaper reports that qualified candidates for the position must be experienced in “contact with the other side, runes, tarots, crystals, herbs, rituals, exorcism, meditation, personal coaching, and more.” Interested witches must also have a fixed telephone line and Internet connection, but can enjoy the advantages of working from home.

Haxriket’s massive hiring wave is the result of an internal shakeup in the company in which several formerly-employed witches had to be terminated for violating telemarketing ethics that were put into place in 1994 by Sweden’s Trade Ethical Council for Telemarketing. What they did was not mentioned.

Qinna Blomgren, who claims to title of “top witch” and part-owner of Haxriket, told The Local, “We’ve really cleaned house. In order to work with us you don’t only need to have certain skills, but you also have to be serious and prepared to continually develop. We have a responsibility to our customers, and therefore our witches go through an employment exam so that we can see that they really can do what they say they can.”

Local authorities don’t mind Haxriket’s business at all. “When it comes to the type of activities described in the announcement, with cards, and crystal and the like, it has a lot to do with what each individual believes, and that isn’t something about which we can have an opinion,” Arbetsformedlingen’s Britt-Marie Grahn told the paper.