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Labour Force Surveys (LFS), 1st quarter 2022

The number of employees is increasing

Statistical news from Statistics Sweden 2022-05-10 8.00

In the first quarter of 2022, there were 5 076 000 employed persons, not seasonally adjusted. This is an increase of 154 000 persons compared to the first quarter of 2021. The number of permanent employees increased by 82 000 to 3 905 000, and the number of temporary employees increased by 47 000 to 657 000. The unemployment rate was 8.1 percent, a decrease of 1.6 percentage points. The average number of hours worked amounted to 159.0 million per week. Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in employment, and a decrease in unemployment. The employment rate amounted to 68.5 percent and the unemployment rate was 7.7 percent.

Since 1 January 2021, the Swedish LFS is in compliance with the new EU framework regulation on social statistics (Regulation (EU) 2019/1700). More information on the alignment to the regulation is available on the LFS home page under “Information on the introduction of the new 2021 framework regulation in the LFS” (scb.se).

The changes have caused breaks in the LFS time series. To make the series comparable in time, a selection of series has been linked backwards to 2005 according to the new practise. Further series are planned to be published in June 2022.

The labour force

The number of persons in the labour force aged 15-74 years was 5 525 000 in the first quarter of 2022, not seasonally adjusted, which amounts to an increase of 75 000 persons compared to the first quarter of 2021. The number of women in the labour force increased by 47 000 to 2 606 000, and there were 2 919 000 men in the labour force. The relative labour force participation rate was 73.5 percent, an increase of 1.0 percentage points. Among women it increased by 1.2 percentage points to 70.5 percent, and among men it increased by 0.8 percentage points to 76.4 percent.

Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in the number and share of persons in the labour force compared with adjacent quarters. In the first quarter of 2022, there were 5 578 000 persons in the labour force, which corresponds to 74.3 percent of the population.

Employment

In the first quarter of 2022, there were 5 076 000 persons aged 15–74 in employment, not seasonally adjusted, which is an increase of 154 000 compared to the corresponding quarter a year ago. There were 2 380 000 employed women, an increase of 72 000, and the number of men increased by 82 000 to 2 696 000 employed men. The employment rate increased by 2.0 percentage points to 67.5 percent. Among women, the employment rate was 64.4 percent, an increase of 1.9 percentage points. Among men, it was 70.6 percent, an increase of 2.2 percentage points.

Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data indicates an increase in both the number and share of employed persons compared with adjacent quarters. In the first quarter of 2022, there were 5 146 000 employed persons, which corresponds to an employment rate of 68.5 percent.

Employees

In the first quarter of 2022, there were 4 562 000 employees, not seasonally adjusted, which is an increase of 129 000 compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Among those, 2 233 000 were women, an increase of 52 000, and 2 328 000 were men, an increase of 77 000. There were 3 905 000 permanent employees, an increase of 82 000. Among permanent employees, the number of women increased by 39 000 to 1 871 000, the number of men increased by 43 000 to 2 034 000. There were 657 000 temporary employees, an increase of 47 000. Among them 362 000 were women, and the number of temporary employed among men increased by 34 000 and amounted to 294 000.

For seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the number of employees was 4 628 000. The corresponding figure for permanent employees was 3 920 000, and for temporary employees 708 000. Compared with adjacent quarters, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in the number of employees, in permanent employees and in temporary employees.

Hours worked

The average number of hours worked in the first quarter of 2022 amounted to 159.0 million hours, not seasonally adjusted. According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the average number of hours worked per week amounted to 152.0 million.

The majority of employed persons have an agreed working time of 35 hours or more per week, that is, full-time work. In the first quarter of 2022, 4 005 000 persons worked full time, which is an increase of 168 000 persons compared to the first quarter of 2021. Among them 1 743 000 were women, an increase of 101 000, and the number of men increased by 67 000 to 2 262 000. In total, 308 000 persons worked short part-time (1–19 hours) and 610 000 persons worked long part-time (20–34 hours), a decrease of 43 000.

The average actual hours worked among employed persons aged 15–74 years amounted to 31.3 hours per week in the first quarter of 2022. This is 0.5 fewer hours than in the first quarter of 2021. Women worked 29.3 hours, and men worked 33.1 hours, down 0.6 hours.

Underemployment

Among employed persons aged 15–74, 285 000 were underemployed in the first quarter of 2022, which amounts to a decrease of 49 000 persons compared to the first quarter of 2021. Among the underemployed persons, 134 000 were women, a decrease by 31 000, and 151 000 were men. Underemployed persons accounted for 5.6 percent of employed persons.

Unemployment

In the first quarter of 2022, there were 449 000 unemployed persons aged 15-74, not seasonally adjusted, which is a decrease of 79 000 persons compared to the first quarter of 2021. This corresponds to an unemployment rate of 8.1 percent, which is a decrease of 1.6 percentage points. There were 226 000 unemployed women, a decrease of 25 000, and 223 000 unemployed men, a decrease of 54 000. The unemployment rate for women decreased by 1.1 percentage points to 8.7 percent, and the male unemployment rate decreased by 2.0 percentage points to 7.6 percent.

Among persons aged 15–74, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows decreases in both the number and share of unemployed persons, compared to adjacent quarters. In the first quarter of 2022, there were 432 000 unemployed persons, which corresponds to an unemployment rate of 7.7 percent.

There were 146 000 unemployed young persons aged 15–24, not seasonally adjusted. This corresponds to an unemployment rate of 24.3 percent. Among unemployed young persons, 99 000 were full-time students.

Among young persons aged 15–24, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows a decrease in both the number and share of unemployed persons compared with adjacent quarters. The number of unemployed young persons amounted to 142 000, corresponding to an unemployment rate of 22.6 percent.

Not in the labour force

The group 'not in the labour force' includes persons who are not classified as employed nor as unemployed. In the first quarter of 2022, there were 1 990 000 persons not in the labour force, a decrease of 76 000 compared to the first quarter of 2021. Among them, 1 089 000 were women, a decrease of 46 000, and 901 000 were men.

Among persons not in the labour force, there were 880 000 retired persons, a decrease of 27 000. Furthermore, the number of full-time students decreased by 46 000 and amounted to 670 000. There were 262 000 persons who reported that they were on long-term sick leave, an increase of 66 000.

Latent job seekers

There were 275 000 latent job seekers aged 15–74 years in the first quarter of 2022. Among young people aged 15–24, there were 132 000 latent job seekers.

Unused labour supply

Unemployed persons, underemployed persons and latent job seekers together comprise the unused labour supply. In the first quarter of 2022, the unused labour supply averaged 21.9 million hours per week, which is 4.5 million hours less compared to the first quarter of 2021. The unused labour supply corresponds to 548 000 full-time employments with 40-hour work weeks.

Labour market for persons aged 20-64 years

The population presented by the LFS is comprised of persons aged 15–74 years. However, labour market participation among younger and older in this age group is considerably lower for natural reasons, for example that this group contains large shares of students and retired persons. To better approach what can be seen as the core of the actively working population, the situation of the age group 20–64 years is described in the following section.

The relative labour force participation rate among persons aged 20–64 years amounted to 87.0 percent in the first quarter of 2022, not seasonally adjusted, which is an increase of 0.6 percentage points compared to the equivalent quarter a year ago. For women, the relative workforce participation rate was 84.2 percent, an increase of 1.0 percentage points, and for men it was 89.6 percent. According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the labour force participation rate amounted to 87.7 percent.

In the first quarter of 2022, the share of employed persons aged 20–64 was 80.9 percent, which is an increase of 2.2 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2021, not seasonally adjusted. For women, the corresponding figure was 77.8 percent, up by 2.0 percentage points, and for men it was 83.8 percent, up by 2.3 percentage points. Compared with adjacent quarters, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in the employment rate, which was 81.9 percent.

According to not seasonally adjusted data, the unemployment rate in the age group 20–64 amounted to 7.0 percent, a decrease of 1.9 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2021. The unemployment rate for women was 7.6 percent, down by 1.3 percentage points. The male unemployment rate decreased by 2.5 percentage points and amounted to 6.5 percent. Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows a decrease in the share of unemployed persons, which was 6.6 percent.

Swedish born and foreign born persons aged 20–64 years[1]

The relative labour force participation rate among Swedish born persons aged 20–64 years was 88.0 percent in the first quarter of 2022, not seasonally adjusted. Among Swedish born women, the relative participation rate amounted to 86.1 percent, and among Swedish born men it was 89.8 percent. Among foreign born persons aged 20–64 years, the relative participation rate was 84.2 percent in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 1.6 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2021. The corresponding figure was 79.0 percent among foreign born women, up by 2.7 percentage points, and 89.3 percent among foreign born men.

In the first quarter of 2022, the share of employed Swedish born persons aged 20–64 was 84.5 percent, which is an increase of 1.1 percentage points compared to a year ago, not seasonally adjusted. Among Swedish born women, the employment rate was 82.7 percent. The employment rate among Swedish born men increased by 1.3 percentage points to 86.3 percent. Among foreign born persons, the employment rate was 70.5 percent, an increase of 5.4 percentage points. The employment rate for foreign born women rose by 5.4 percentage points and was 64.3 percent. For foreign born men it increased by 5.5 percentage points to 76.6 percent.

The relative unemployment rate among Swedish born persons aged 20–64 years was 3.9 percent in the first quarter of 2022, a decrease of 1.1 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2021. Among Swedish born women and men, the unemployment rate was 3.9 percent, which amounts to a decrease of 0.7 and 1.4 percentage points, respectively. The unemployment rate among foreign born persons was 16.3 percentage points, down by 4.9 percentage points. For foreign born women it was 18.7 percent, and for foreign born men it was 14.3 percent, a decrease of 4.1 and 5.5 percentage points, respectively.

[1] For Swedish born and foreign born persons seasonally adjusted and smoothed figures are not presented this quarter since these series are not yet linked.

Employment rate, persons aged 15-74
Labour Force Surveys (LFS), 1st quarter 2022

Employment rate by sex, smoothed and seasonally adjusted data, persons aged 15-74
Labour Force Surveys (LFS), 1st quarter 2022

Unemployment rate, persons aged 15-74
Labour Force Surveys (LFS), 1st quarter 2022

Unemployment rate by sex, smoothed and seasonally adjusted data, persons aged 15-74
Labour Force Surveys (LFS), 1st quarter 2022

Definitions and explanations

Since the LFS is a sample survey, the results are subject to some uncertainty. The LFS basic tables contain uncertainty figures and refer to non-seasonally adjusted data.

Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data (trend values): data in which normal seasonal variations have been removed, then smoothed to reduce sampling error and short-term variations. Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data may be revised following new monthly outcomes and usually does not coincide with non-seasonally adjusted data. Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data is not to be compared with non-seasonally adjusted data.

More detailed results are available in the form of figures and tables on employed persons, hours worked, unemployed persons and more, on Statistics Sweden’s website.

Next publishing will be

2022-05-25, at 08:00.

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Statistics Sweden

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