In 2017, 4 922 366 persons were gainfully employed, up by 1.8 percent compared with 2016. Women accounted for 48 percent and men accounted for 52 percent of the gainfully employed persons. Gross pay increased by 4.8 percent compared with the previous year and amounted to SEK 1 719 billion in 2017. Women’s pay increased by 5.0 percent and men’s pay increased by 4.5 percent.

The number of gainfully employed persons continued to increase in all counties, and increased the most in Kronoberg County, Halland County and Örebro County, by 2.2 percent. The highest increase in gross pay was 5.4 percent, in Örebro County. The lowest gross pay increase was 2.5 percent, in Norrbotten County. The only instance of a decrease in the number of gainfully employed person was in Norrbotten County, where the number of gainfully employed women declined by 0.2 percent. Despite this decline, women’s gross pay rose by 3.0 percent in Norrbotten County.

Proportion of gainfully employed foreign born men increased sharply

In 2017, the proportion of the population that was gainfully employed amounted to 79.1 percent among people aged 20 to 64 years. Among women, this proportion increased by 0.2 percentage points to 77.9 percent, compared with the previous year. Among men, this proportion was 80.3 percent, up by 0.7 percentage points compared with the previous year. The highest proportion of gainfully employed women was 82.1 percent in Halland County, and the highest proportion of gainfully employed men was 84.4 percent in Jönköping County.

Among foreign born persons, the proportion of gainfully employed women increased by 0.7 percent to 58.9 percent and the proportion of gainfully employed men increased by 1.8 percent to 64.8 percent compared with the previous year. This increase was largest among men born outside of Europe, by 2.6 percentage points to 60 percent.

Business services increased the most

Business services was the industry with the largest percentage change, 4.1 percent, in the number of gainfully employed persons compared with the previous year. In 2017, business services engaged 592 000 persons, and the largest increase in gross pay, 8.4 percent was also in this industry. No industry decreased in size, although the number of gainfully employed persons in the Human health and social work activities remained unchanged from the previous year.

Among women, the highest proportion, 27 percent or 646 000 persons, were employed in Human health and social work activities, followed by 17 percent in Education. Among men, the highest proportion, 16 percent or 420 000 persons, were employed in Mining, quarrying and manufacturing, followed by 13 percent in Business services. The distribution of gross pay also shows that Human health and social work activities accounted for 27 percent of gross pay among women and Mining, quarrying and manufacturing accounted for the largest percentage, 18 percent, among men.

Among 15 reported industries, distribution between the sexes was equal in 6 of them, meaning that one of the two sexes accounted for at least 40 percent of gainfully employed persons. The most equal distribution between the sexes was in the Hotels and restaurants and Financial and insurance activities, in which each sex accounted for 50 percent of gainfully employed persons. The construction industry had the least equal distribution between the sexes, where women accounted for 9 percent and men accounted for 91 percent of gainfully employed persons.

Fewer local labour markets

The number of local labour markets decreased to 70 in 2017. Trollhättan-Vänersborg, which was an independent local labour market the previous year, was incorporated into Göteborg. Säffle-Åmål was also discontinued as an independent local labour market and was incorporated into Karlstad. Katrineholm-Flen emerged as a new local labour market in 2017.

Stockholm-Solna was largest local labour market, with 1.4 million gainfully employed persons, followed by Malmö-Lund and Göteborg. Åsele was the smallest local labour market, with 1 100 gainfully employed persons.

Local labour markets are defined based on statistics on commuting for work. Commuting for work occurs when a person lives and works in two different municipalities. In total, 1.7 million people (34 percent) of all gainfully employed persons commuted to work in 2017. Sundbyberg was the municipality with the largest percentage of outgoing commuters, as 82 percent of all gainfully employed persons commuted from there to work in another municipality. Solna had the most incoming commuters, 87 percent of all those working in Solna lived in another municipality.

There was no municipality in which more women than men commuted for work. Although in Tranemo and Ovanåker, there was an equal number of women and men who commuted for work. Among those living in Arvidsjaur who commuted for work, 78 percent were men. The share of men who commuted for work was 70 percent or more in 7 municipalities. All of these municipalities are located in Norrbotten or Västerbotten.

The next statistical news in this series will be published on 2019-11-28 at 09:30.