– The labour market showed resilience in 2022, despite a troubled economic situation. Unemployment decreased broadly while employment reached a high level, says Åsa Zakrisson, statistician at the Labour Force Surveys at Statistics Sweden.

For an overview of how the labour market situation has changed over the year, see the monthly and quarterly publications on Labour Force Surveys (LFS)

The labour force participation rate increased to 74.5 percent

There were on average 7 536 000 persons aged 15-74 in the population in 2022, an increase of 23 000. 3 832 000 were men, an increase of 14 000, and 3 704 000 were women, an increase of 9 000. The number of foreign born in the population aged 15-74 amounted to 1 820 000 persons on average in 2022, an increase of 48 000 compared to 2021. The number of Swedish born decreased by 25 000 to 5 716 000.

There were 5 617 000 people in the labour force, an increase of 69 000 compared to 2021. The number of men in the labour force was 2 960 000, an increase of 33 000, and the number of women were 2 656 000, an increase of 37 000. The labour force participation rate was 74.5 percent, an increase of 0.7 percentage points. For men it amounted to 77.3 percent and for women 71.7 percent, an increase of 0.8 percentage points.

The employment rate reached a high level

There were on average 5 197 000 employed persons aged 15-74 in 2022. This is an increase of 138 000 people compared to 2021, of whom 54 000 were young people aged 15-24 years. There number of employed men increased by 75 000 to 2 752 000, while the number of employed women increased by 64 000 to 2 445 000. Among Swedish born persons, there were 4 029 000 employed persons, an increase of 45 000, of whom 35 000 were men. There were 1 168 000 employed foreign born persons, an increase of 94 000 of whom 39 000 were men and 54 000 women.

The employment rate, that is, the proportion of employed people in the population, reached the highest level since 2001, which is as far back in time there is comparable data. That applies for both men and women. The employment rate has thus fully recovered since the corona pandemic. However, the employment for Swedish born young women aged 15-24 has not fully recovered. The employment rate was 69.0 percent, up by 1.7 percentage points compared with the previous year. Among men, the employment rate was 71.8 percent and among women it was 66.0 percent, an increase of 1.7 and 1.6 percent respectively. The employment rate increased among both Swedish born and foreign born persons. It increased more among foreign born than among Swedish born, though from a lower level. Among foreign born persons the rate increased by 3.6 percentage points and amounted to 64.2 percent and among Swedish born persons the rate increased by 1.1 percentage points and amounted to 70.5 percent. The employment rate was higher among men than among women for both Swedish born and foreign born persons. However, the difference between the sexes was significantly larger among foreign born persons. The employment increased especially for young people aged 15-24, an increase of 3.9 percentage points to 44.5 percent.

The largest industry was financial and insurance activities, where 969 000 persons were employed in 2022, an increase of 69 000. The second largest industry was human health and social work activities, with 758 000 employed and the third largest was education with 575 000 employed. The smallest industry was agriculture, forestry and fishing, where 89 000 people were employed in 2022. The largest percentage increase in the number of employed persons was in the hotels and restaurants industry, the increase was 28 000 people to 157 000 people.

People who want and can work more than they usually do are called underemployed. In 2022 there were 299 000 underemployed people. Among the underemployed, 156 000 were men and 143 000 were women, a decrease of 16 000 among women. The underemployed made up 5.8 percent of the employed.

Largest percentage increase among temporary employees

Among employed people aged 15-74 there were 4 683 000 employees in 2022, which corresponds to 90.1 percent. This is an increase of 125 000 people. There were 3 949 000 permanent employees on average in 2022, an increase of 85 000. 2 053 000 were men, an increase of 52 000, and 1 896 000 were women, an increase of 33 000. There were 734 000 temporary employees on average. Compared with the previous year, this is an increase of 40 000 people, of whom 24 000 were men. The increase was mainly among young people aged 15-24, where the number of temporary employees increased by 38 000.

In 2022, 66.4 percent of employees worked in the private sector, 24.8 percent worked in the municipal sector and 7.6 percent were employed in the government sector. There were 3 110 000 employees on average in the private sector, an increase of 106 000 people compared with 2021. In the municipal sector, there were 1 160 000 employees and in the government sector the corresponding figure was 356 000.

Number of hours worked increased the most in the hotels and restaurants industry

In 2022, the total average number of hours worked per week was 155.7 million hours, up by 2.5 percentage points compared with 2021.

The largest increase was noted in the hotels and restaurants industry, in which the number of hours worked increased by 25.7 percent compared with the previous year. In the financial and insurance activities industry, the increase was 8.0 percent.

Large reduction in unemployment during the year

2022 was marked by a recovery in the labour market and unemployment decreased to similar levels as before the corona pandemic. However, the trend rate of decline slowed during the year to stop during the last quarter. Unemployment decreased throughout compared to the previous year, for both men and women, for Swedish and foreign born and for most age groups.

In 2022, 419 000 persons aged 15-74 were unemployed, a decrease of 69 000 compared to 2021. The number of unemployed women decreased by 27 000 to 211 000, and the number of unemployed men decreased by 42 000 to 208 000. In 2022, the average unemployment rate was 7.5 percent, a decrease of 1.3 percentage points compared with the previous year. The unemployment rate was 8.0 percent among women and 7.0 percent among men, a decrease of 1.1 percentage points for women and 1.5 percentage points for men. The number of unemployed Swedish born persons decreased by 33 000 to 196 000 people, and the number of unemployed foreign born persons decreased by 36 000 to 223 000 people. The unemployment rate decreased by 0.8 percentage points to 4.6 percent among Swedish born persons, and by 3.5 percentage points to 16.0 percent among foreign born persons.

There were 144 000 unemployed young persons aged 15-24. Among young unemployed persons, 84 000 were full-time students. Youth unemployment decreased by 3.1 percentage points and amounted to 21.7 percent on average. The proportion of unemployed young men decreased by 5.3 percentage points to 20.1 percent and the proportion of unemployed young women amounted to 23.5 percent.

The average number of long-term unemployed persons, that is, people who have been unemployed for 27 weeks or longer, was 142 000 in 2022, which is a decrease of 23 000 people. The number of long-term unemployed men amounted to 76 000, a decrease of 12 000. The number of long-term unemployed women amounted to 66 000, a decrease of 11 000.

Fewer people outside the labour force

In 2022, 1 919 000 persons aged 15-74 were not in the labour force, which is a decrease of 46 000. Among those not in the labour force, 871 000 were men and 1 048 000 were women. There were 1 490 000 Swedish born persons, a decrease of 37 000, and 429 000 foreign born persons who were not in the labour force.

The number of people outside the labour force decreased mainly within the group of full-time students, while the number of people outside the labour force due to illness increased. There were 532 000 full-time students on average during the year, a decrease of 38 000 people. The number of people not in the labour force due to illness increased by 30 000 people and amounted to 279 000, breaking the trend from declines in recent years. Among persons not in the labour force, 876 000 were retired. People who can and would like to work, but who are not looking for work, are called latent job seekers. The number of latent job seekers amounted to 253 000 people in 2022, of which men 128 000 and women 126 000. Among young persons aged 15-24 the number of latent jobseekers amounted to 121 000.

Regional distribution

Of the three largest counties – Stockholm, Västra Götaland and Skåne county – the employment rate was highest in Stockholm, for both men and women. The employment rate in Stockholm was 75.7 percent for men and 71.4 for women. In Västra Götaland it was 74.2 for men and 67.7 for women, which was a decrease of 3.0 percentage points for men and 3.5 percentage points for women compared to 2021. In Skåne, the corresponding figure was 70.1 for men and 63.3 for women, an increase of 2.8 percentage points among men.

Compared to 2021, unemployment among men in Stockholm decreased by 1.3 percentage points to 6.7 percent. Among women, it amounted to 7.3 percent. In Västra Götaland it decreased to 5.8 percent among men and to 7.3 percent among women, a decrease of 2.1 percentage points for both men and women. In Skåne the corresponding figure was 8.5 percent for men and 10.0 percent for 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) 2022.