- We do not see any substantial changes in the labour market in December. Similar to November, there is however an increase in the number of hours worked according to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, says Eyvind Löfgren, statistician at the Labour Force Surveys at Statistics Sweden.

Labour force

In December 2024, the number of people in the labour force aged 15–74 amounted to 5 644 000, not seasonally adjusted. The number of women in the labour force was 2 685 000 and the number of men amounted to 2 959 000. The labour force participation rate amounted to 74.1 percent. Among women the labour force participation rate was 71.6 percent and among men it was 76.5 percent.

According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the number of people in the labour force amounted to 5 716 000, corresponding to a labour force participation rate of 75.1 percent.

Employment

The number of employed people aged 15-74 amounted to 5 190 000 in December 2024, not seasonally adjusted. The number of employed women was 2 455 000 and the number of employed men was 2 736 000. The employment rate amounted to 68.1 percent. The employment rate among women was 65.5 percent and among men it was 70.7 percent.

Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data show a decrease in the employment rate compared to recent months to 68.7 percent. The number of employed people amounted to 5 233 000.

Employees

In December 2024, the number of employees amounted to 4 667 000, according to not seasonally adjusted data. The number of employees among women was 2 307 000 and among men it was 2 360 000. The number of permanent employees amounted to 4 058 000, of which 1 994 000 were women and 2 064 000 were men. The number of temporary employees amounted to 609 000. Among the temporary employed, 313 000 were women and 296 000 were men.

The number of employees amounted to 4 732 000 according to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, of which 4 101 000 were permanent employees and 631 000 were temporary employees.

Hours worked

The average number of total hours worked in December 2024 amounted to 148.1 million per week, according to not seasonally adjusted data.

Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data show an increase in the number of hours worked compared with recent months. The average number of hours worked amounted to 155.7 million per week.

Unemployment

In December 2024, the number of unemployed people aged 15–74 amounted to 454 000, not seasonally adjusted. This corresponds to an unemployment rate of 8.0 percent. The number of unemployed women was 230 000 and the number of unemployed men was 223 000. The unemployment rate amounted to 8.6 percent for women and 7.5 percent for men. The number of long-term unemployed people, unemployed for at least 27 weeks, amounted to 152 000. Among the long-term unemployed, 82 000 were women and 71 000 were men. The number of unemployed young people aged 15–24 amounted to 136 000, corresponding to an unemployment rate of 21.5 percent. Among unemployed young people, 78 000 were full-time students.

According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the number of unemployed people aged 15–74 amounted to 483 000, which corresponds to an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent. Among young people aged 15–24 the number of unemployed amounted to 163 000. This corresponds to an unemployment rate of 23.9 percent.

Unused labour supply

Unemployed people, underemployed people and latent jobseekers together constitute the unused labour supply. In December 2024, the unused labour supply averaged 24.0 million hours per week. This corresponds to 600 000 full-time employments with 40-hour work weeks.

2025-02-04, kl. 08:00.