Population by Labour market status, 4th quarter 2022
Employment continued to increase in the fourth quarter of 2022
Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2023-02-27 8.00
People in employment aged 15 to 74 numbered 5 171 000 in the fourth quarter of 2022. This is an increase of 121 000 people compared to the same period of 2021. In the 16 to 64 age range, 251 000 people were unemployed. This equals a share of 4.9 percent expressed as a percentage of the labour force and a decrease of 0.9 percentage points from the fourth quarter of 2021.
Statistics Sweden launched the product “Labour market status of the population” (BAS) in May 2022. The purpose of BAS is to provide information on labour supply in Sweden by month, quarter and year. Initially, BAS are “statistics under development” but with plans to present them as official statistics eventually. This presentation concerns preliminary statistics, monthly and quarterly, for the period October–December 2022 and for the full-year 2022. For more information, see Definitions and explanations.
People in employment
The number of people in employment aged 15 to 74 increased in the fourth quarter of 2022 by 121 000 compared with the same period of 2021, amounting to 5 171 000. Fewer women than men were employed. A total of 2 501 000 women and 2 669 000 men were employed.
The employment rate – the number of employed people in relation to the population – was 67.0 percent among women and 68.9 percent among men. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2021, the employment rate increased by 1.4 percentage points for women and 1.1 percentage points for men. The employment rate is largely affected by the demographic composition of the population, which is of significance when comparing municipalities, for example. Young and older people tend to have a lower employment rate and are present in other labour market status categories.
The unemployed
The number of unemployed people aged 16 to 64 in the fourth quarter of 2022 was 251 000. This is a decrease of 43 000 people compared with the fourth quarter of 2021. The number of unemployed women was 123 000 and the number of unemployed men was 128 000. The relative unemployment rate – the proportion of unemployed people in relation to the labour force – was 4.9 percent for women and 4.8 percent for men. This equals a reduction in unemployment among women of 0.9 percentage points, and 1.0 percentage points among men compared with the same period of 2021.
Unemployment is higher among foreign born people than among those born in Sweden. Unemployed foreign born people aged 16 to 64 numbered 148 000 in the fourth quarter of 2022. This is a decrease of 24 000 people compared with the fourth quarter of 2021. The number of unemployed foreign born women was 80 000 and the number of unemployed foreign born men was 68 000. The relative unemployment rate was, among foreign born people, 13.4 percent for women and 10.3 percent for men. This corresponds to a reduction in unemployment among both women and men of 2.4 percentage points compared with the same period of 2021.
Status in employment
Employed people includes those who are employees, self-employed persons and self-employed persons in a joint-stock company. The majority of employed people are classified as employees. In 2022, 95 percent of employed women were employees, as were 89 percent of employed men.
In 2022, 192 000 people were self-employed and 210 000 were self-employed persons in a joint-stock company. It is more common for men to be a self-employed person in a joint-stock company than self-employed. In 2022, 161 000 men were self-employed persons in a joint-stock company and 126 000 were self-employed. This corresponds to 6 and 5 percent, respectively, of employed men. For employed women, the opposite is the case – it was more common to be self-employed than a self-employed person in a joint-stock company. In 2022, 49 000 women were self-employed persons in a joint-stock company and 66 000 were self-employed. This corresponds to 2 percent and 3 percent, respectively, of employed women.
The extent to which it is common for people to be self-employed persons in a joint-stock company varies within different age groups. Among employed people in the 15 to 24 age group, only 1 percent had these statuses in employment in 2022. In the 25 to 54 age group, the corresponding proportion was 7 percent, while in the 55 to 74 age group it was 14 percent.
The breakdown between the different statuses in employment differs marginally between Sweden- and foreign-born people. The proportion of self-employed people was 4 percent in both groups in 2022. Among people born in Sweden, it was slightly more common to be a self-employed person in a joint-stock company than among people born abroad – 4 and 3 percent, respectively. Those born abroad had instead a somewhat higher share of employees.
Definitions and explanations
BAS, Labour market status of the population, presents statistics based on administrative data concerning aspects such as the number of people in employment, unemployed people and people outside the labour force for the registered population aged 15 to 74. The statistics can be used to describe current status, but also the progression over time. They illuminate both the entire population and smaller groups, such as detailed age groups at the municipal level.
The statistics contain estimates of the number of people broken down by labour market status: Employed, unemployed, student, pensioner, sick and others, with the labour force consisting of employed people and the unemployed. The definition of labour market status is hierarchical, which means that a person can only be assigned one labour market status, and it is determined according to the order of precedence above.
For people with more than one status in employment, for example who are both employed and self-employed, status in employment is derived using information on remuneration size.
The statistics are by month. Quarterly and annual data is calculated as the average of the months included.
Feel free to use the facts from this statistical news but remember to state Source: Statistics Sweden.