Number of persons in the labour force increased by 104 000

There were 5 380 000 persons aged 15-74 in the labour force, 104 000 more than in 2016. The increase was 61 000 among men and 43 000 among women. There were 4 244 000 Swedish born persons in the labour force and among foreign born persons there were 1 136 000, an increase of 85 000.

The labour force participation rate increased by 0.6 percentage points to 72.7 percent in 2017. Among men, the labour force participation rate rose by 0.7 percentage points to 75.1 percent, and among women it rose by 0.6 percentage points to 70.2 percent. Among Swedish born persons, the labour force participation rate increased by 0.4 percentage points to 72.7 percent, and among foreign born people it was also 72.7 percent, 1.4 percentage points more than in 2016.

The employment rate continued to increase

On average, 5 022 000 persons were in employment in 2017. The number of employed persons increased by 112 000 during 2017. Compared with 2016, the number of employed men increased by 67 000 to 2 629 000. The number of employed women rose by 44 000 to 2 393 000. The number of employed Swedish born persons was 4 057 000, an increase of 34 000. Among foreign born persons, 965 000 were employed, which is an increase of 77 000.

The employment rate increased by 0.7 percentage points to 67.8 percent in 2017. Among men the employment rate increased by 0.9 percentage points to 69.9 percent, and among women it rose by 0.6 percentage points to 65.7 percent. Among Swedish born persons, the employment rate increased by 0.7 percentage points to 69.5 percent, while among foreign born persons it was 61.7 percent, an increase of 1.6 percentage points compared with 2016.

The number of employed persons continued to increase in Stockholm County, where it increased by 30 000 to 1 228 000 persons. In Gotland County, the number of employed persons increased by 2 000 to 30 000 persons; in Gävleborg County the number of employed persons increased by 8 000 to 134 000 and in Jämtland County employed persons increased by 3 000 to 65 000 employed persons.

The number of persons employed in the ‘Information and communication’ economic activity increased in 2017. The number of employed persons in this activity rose by 18 000 to 223 000. In the ‘Public administration etc.’ economic activity, the number of employed persons increased by 15 000 to 339 000 and in ‘Construction’ the number of employees continued to increase, to 339 000, which is an increase of 14 000 persons.

Number of permanent employees increased

The number of permanent employees was 3 763 000 in 2017, which was an increase of 83 000 persons compared with 2016. The number of permanent employees among men increased by 46 000 to 1 926 000, and the number of permanent employees among women increased by 37 000 to 1 837 000. The number of temporary employees increased by 24 000 persons and amounted to 763 000, of which 346 000 were men and 417 000 were women.

In 2017, there were 3 017 000 employees in the private sector, an increase of 61 000 compared with 2016. There were 1 172 000 employees in the municipal sector, an increase of 49 000. In the government sector there were 295 000 employees in 2017.

Number of hours worked increased by 2.4 million

The total number of hours worked per week was 153.1 million hours on average in 2017, which was an increase of 2.4 million hours per week compared with 2016.

Youth unemployment decreased to 17.8 percent

There were 358 000 unemployed persons aged 15–74 on average in 2017. There were 195 000 unemployed men and 163 000 unemployed women. The number of Swedish born unemployed persons decreased by 16 000 to 187 000. Among foreign born persons, the number of unemployed was 172 000. The number of long-term unemployed persons was 99 000.

In 2017, on average, 6.7 percent of those in the labour force aged 15–74 were unemployed, which is a decrease of 0.2 percentage points compared with 2016. The unemployment rate among men decreased by 0.4 percentage points to 6.9 percent, while among women, the unemployment rate was 6.4 percent. Among Swedish born people, the unemployment rate was 4.4 percent, which is a decrease of 0.4 percentage points. The unemployment rate among foreign born persons was 15.1 percent.

The number of unemployed young persons aged 15–24 years decreased for the third consecutive year. In 2017, the number of unemployed young persons decreased by 8 000 and amounted to 112 000, of whom 60 000 were full-time students. The unemployment rate in this age group decreased by 1.1 percentage points to 17.8 percent.

In Västra Götaland County, the number of unemployed persons decreased by 5 000 to 55 000. In Jönköping County and Gävleborg County the number of unemployed persons decreased by 2 000 each, and amounted to 9 000 and 10 000 respectively.

Number of persons not in the labour force decreased

In 2017, there were on average 2 023 000 persons aged 15–74 who were not in the labour force, a decrease of 23 000 persons compared with 2016. There were 946 000 retired persons, while the number of persons with poor health decreased by 18 000, and amounted to 289 000. The number of full-time students was 522 000.

About 38 percent of externally recruited persons were young people

Among persons aged 15–74, there were, on average, 375 000 externally recruited persons per quarter in 2017. The number of externally recruited men and women was 181 000 and 194 000 respectively per quarter. Among externally recruited persons, about 38 percent, or 141 000 persons, were young people aged 15–24. Young people are more likely to be externally recruited than older persons. On average, 67 000 persons were internally recruited per quarter in 2017, 34 000 of whom were men and 33 000 were women.

A more detailed report on the labour market situation for the entire population aged 15–74 is available in the Statistical Report.