- We see continued signs of a slowdown in the labour market in January, above all, we note a reduction in the number of temporary employees and an increase in unemployment, says Åsa Zakrisson, statistician at the Labour Force Surveys at Statistics Sweden.

Labour force

In January 2024, the number of people in the labour force aged 15–74 amounted to 5 615 000, not seasonally adjusted. The number of women in the labour force was 2 659 000 and the number of men was 2 955 000. The labour force participation rate amounted to 73.9 percent. The labour force participation rate for women was 71.3 percent and for men it was 76.5 percent.

For seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the number of people in the labour force amounted to 5 724 000, corresponding to a labour force participation rate of 75.4 percent.

Employment

There were 5 136 000 employed people aged 15–74 in January 2024, not seasonally adjusted. The number of employed women was 2 432 000 and the number of employed men amounted to 2 704 000. The employment rate was 67.6 percent. The employment rate among women amounted to 65.2 percent and for men it was 70.0 percent.

According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the number of employed persons aged 15–74 amounted to 5 259 000, which corresponds to an employment rate of 69.2 percent.

Employees

In January 2024, there were 4 640 000 employees, according to not seasonally adjusted data. The number of employees among women was 2 270 000 and among men it was 2 370 000. The number of permanent employees amounted to 4 072 000. The number of permanent employed women amounted to 1 952 000 and the number of permanent employed men was 2 120 000. The number of temporary employees was 568 000, a decrease of 77 000 compared to the corresponding month previous year. The number of temporary employed women was 318 000 and the number of temporary employed men amounted to 250 000, a decrease of 42 000.

For seasonally adjusted and smoothed data the number of employees amounted to 4 738 000, of which the number of permanent employees was 4 071 000 and the number of temporary employees was 668 000. Compared with recent months, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows a decrease in the number of temporary employees.

Hours worked

The average number of total hours worked in January 2024 amounted to 151.5 million per week, according to not seasonally adjusted data.

Compared with recent months, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in the number of hours worked. The average number of hours worked was on average 157.2 million per week.

Unemployment

In January 2024, the number of unemployed people aged 15–74 years amounted to 479 000, not seasonally adjusted, an increase of 55 000 compared to the corresponding month previous year. The unemployment rate amounted to 8.5 percent, an increase of 0.9. The number of unemployed women amounted to 228 000 and the number of unemployed men was 251 000. The unemployment rate for women amounted to 8.6 percent and for men it was 8.5 percent. The number of long-term unemployed, unemployed for at least 27 weeks, was 138 000. The number of long-term unemployed women were 65 000 and the number of men were 73 000. The number of unemployed young people aged 15–24 amounted to 152 000. The youth unemployment rate was 24.9 percent. Among unemployed young people, 100 000 were full-time students.

Compared with recent months, the number of unemployed among people aged 15-74 increased and amounted to 464 000, according to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data. The unemployment rate also increased and amounted to 8.1 percent. Among young people aged 15–24 the number of unemployed amounted to 158 000 and the unemployment rate was 23.3 percent. Compared with recent months, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in the number of unemployed as well as the unemployment rate among young people.

Unused labour supply

Unemployed people, underemployed people and latent job seekers together constitute the unused labour supply. In January 2024, the unused labour supply averaged 23.1 million hours per week. The unused labour supply corresponds to 578 000 full-time employments with 40-hour work weeks.

2024-03-15, kl. 08:00