Unemployment in Sweden is increasing. Over 400,000 Swedes are without a job and the number who have been unemployed for a long time continues to increase, new figures from Statistics Norway show.
“Of course it costs, both for society as a whole and for each unemployed individual, says Eva Samakovlis at The Swedish employment center”.
Unemployment is the highest in ten years, excluding the pandemic period, according to the government. And there is still no improvement in sight, according to the Swedish Employment Agency.
Almost 90,000 more Swedes were unemployed in July this year than in July last year.
“The labor market has held up well, for a long time. But then it gave way in the fall of 2023, and that trend has continued. Our forecast is that it will continue like this this autumn, even if there are no large increases in unemployment that we see ahead, says Eva Samakovlis, director of analysis at The Swedish employment center”.
In July 2024, the number of unemployed people aged 15 to 74 was 454,000. This is an increase of 87,000 people compared to the corresponding month of the previous year, Statistics Norway writes in a press release.
Third on the bottom list in Europe
Unemployment varies month by month. In order to be able to compare, Statistics Sweden uses so-called seasonally adjusted and equalized figures. By that measure, unemployment is at 8.3 percent in July.
This means that Sweden ends up in shared third place, together with Finland, in Europe for the percentage of unemployed. The only countries with higher unemployment are Greece and Spain.
During July, long-term unemployment also increased by 45,000 compared to July the previous year, writes Statistics Norway.
“It is a problem that we at the employment agency together with other actors must work to solve, says Eva Samakovlis”.
