The aftermath of the coronavirus continued to affect the Swedish society during 2021, and the labour market was no exception. The spread of the coronavirus was low during the summer and early autumn, and many of the restrictions were lifted at the end of September due to the high vaccination coverage. At the end of November, the omicron mutation was discovered in Sweden and the spread of the coronavirus increased again. As a result, restrictions and recommendations were reintroduced in December.

This report aims to provide an overview of the labour market in 2021 based on non-seasonally adjusted data. In previous reports, comparisons with previous time periods have been described. However, this is not possible in this report due to time series breaks in January 2021. In 2022, work is underway to link series over time. In this report, at times, comparisons are made during 2021. These comparisons are then based on seasonally adjusted and smoothed data.

The labour force participation rate amounted to 73.8 percent

There were on average 7 512 000 persons aged 15-74 in the population in 2021. Among them 3 818 000 were men and 3 695 000 were women. There were 5 547 000 people in the labour force, of whom 2 928 000 were men and 2 620 000 were women. The labour force participation rate was 73.8 percent. It was 76.7 percent for men and 70.9 percent for women.

The employment rate was 67.3 percent

There were on average 5 059 000 employed persons aged 15-74 in 2021. Among them, 2 678 000 were men and 2 381 000 were women. Among Swedish born, there were 3 984 00 employed persons and there were 1 074 000 employed foreign born persons.

The employment rate, that is, the proportion of employed people in the population, was 67.3 percent. The employment rate was higher for men than for women, it was 70.1 and 64.4 percent, respectively. The employment rate amongst foreign born was lower than of Swedish born. The employment rate among Swedish born men was 71.5 percent, and 67.3 percent for Swedish born women. Among foreign born men it was 65.9 percent and for foreign born women it was 55.3 percent.

People who want and can work more than they usually do are called underemployed. Among persons employed aged 15-74, 319 000 were underemployed in 2021. The number of underemployed men was 160 000, and for women the corresponding figure was 159 000. The underemployed comprised 6.3 percent of the employed.

The share of employed women in Education was 71.1 percent

The largest industry was Financial and insurance activities where 900 000 people were employed in 2021. The second largest industry was Human health and social work activities with 750 000 employed persons, and the third largest industry was Education with 570 000 employed persons. In the Human health and social work activities industry, 76.1 percent were women and in the Education industry 71.1 percent were women. The smallest industry was Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, where 87 000 people were employed in 2021.

The number of permanent employees was 3 864 000

In 2021 there were 4 558 000 employees aged 15-74. Among them 2 310 000 were men and 2 249 000 were women. There were 3 864 00 permanent employees, of whom 2 002 000 were men and 1 862 000 were women. The number of temporary employees was 694 000 on average. Among them, 308 000 were men and 386 000 were women.

In 2021, 65.9 percent of the employees worked in the private sector and 25.6 percent worked in the municipal sector. The remaining 7.4 percent worked in the governmental sector. On average, there were 3 004 000 employees in the private sector, 1 169 000 in the municipal sector and 339 000 in the governmental sector.

The number of hours worked amounted to 151.9 million per week

In 2021, the total average number of hours worked per week was 151.9 million hours. Men worked on average 85.7 million hours per week and women worked on average 66.3 million hours per week.

The unemployment rate was 8.8 percent

In 2021, 489 000 aged 15-74 were on average unemployed. This corresponds to an unemployment rate of 8.8 percent. The unemployment rate was higher among women than men in 2021. The male unemployment rate was 8.5 percent, and the female was 9.1 percent. Among foreign born, the unemployment rate was 19.5 percent. The unemployment rate for Swedish born was 5.4 percent.

1 965 000 persons were not in the labour force

In 2021, 1 965 000 persons aged 15-74 were not in the labour force. Among those not in the labour force, 890 000 were men and 1 075 000 were women.

People who can and would like to work, but who are not looking for work, are called latent jobseekers. There were 269 000 latent job seekers in 2021. Among those, 135 000 were men and 134 000 were women.

A more detailed report on the labour market situation for the entire population aged 15–74 is available in the publication Labour force surveys (LFS) 2021.