Since 1 January 2021, the Swedish LFS is in compliance with the new EU framework regulation on social statistics (Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council). This framework regulation has involved changes in the definition of employment, the sampling procedure, and the structure of the questionnaire. These changes have caused breaks in the time series and therefore, this item of statistical news does not include any comparisons with previous years. Comparisons with previous months in 2021 are possible for seasonally adjusted and smoothed data. However, comparisons with previous years are not advised. Throughout 2021, parallel measurements have been used to make it possible to link data backwards in time and make the series comparable with previous years. As from the LFS publication of January, at the 24^th of February, a selection of linked series is planned to be published back to 2005.

The number of employed persons has been affected, partly due to the change in the definition; people who are completely absent from work for three months or more for certain reasons are no longer classified as being employed. Furthermore, new and updated information is used in the weighting procedures, which improves the precision in the estimates, although it also affects the levels of the number of employed persons. The change in the definition and the new weighting procedure led to a total estimated number of employed persons in December that is 71 000 fewer than according to the previous method.

Besides the number of employed persons, other estimates have also been affected by a change in definition, target population, and survey design. The new auxillary information has also affected the other estimates.

More information on the alignment to the framework regulation is available on the LFS product page under “Information on the introduction of the new 2021 framework regulation in the LFS” (scb.se).

The labour force

In December 2021, there were 5 483 000 people aged 15–74 years in the labour force, not seasonally adjusted. There were 2 588 000 women and 2 895 000 men in the labour force. The relative labour force participation rate was 72.9 percent. This rate was 70.0 percent for women and 75.8 percent for men.

According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, there were 5 570 000 people in the labour force and the labour force participation rate was 74.2 percent.

Employment

In December 2021, there were 5 083 000 employed people aged 15–74 years, not seasonally adjusted. There were 2 380 000 employed women and 2 703 000 employed men. The employment rate was 67.6 percent. This rate was 64.4 percent for women and 70.7 percent for men.

According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, there were 5 114 000 employed people and the employment rate was 68.1 percent. Compared with previous months in 2021, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data showed an increase in both the number of employed people and the employment rate.

Employees

In December 2021, there were 4 577 000 employees according to non-seasonally adjusted data. Among employees, there were 2 254 000 women and 2 323 000 men. There were 3 912 000 permanent employees and 665 000 temporary employees.

According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, there were 4 596 000 employees. There were 3 910 000 permanent employees and 686 000 temporary employees. Compared with previous months in 2021, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data showed an increase in the number of permanent employees and a decrease in the number of temporary employees.

Hours worked

In December 2021, the average number of hours worked was 138.5 million per week, not seasonally adjusted.

Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data showed that the total average number of hours worked per week was 152.3 million.

Unemployment

In December 2021, there were 400 000 unemployed persons aged 15–74 years, which corresponds to an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent, not seasonally adjusted. There were 208 000 unemployed women and 193 000 unemployed men, which corresponds to an unemployment rate of 8.0 percent for women and 6.6 percent for men. Among those who were unemployed, 158 000 had been unemployed for more than six months.

In December, there were 456 000 unemployed persons according to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, which corresponds to an unemployment rate of 8.2 percent. Compared with previous months in 2021, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data showed a decrease in the number and in the proportion of unemployed people.

Additional questions on the impact of COVID-19 on the labour market

In view of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, questions about the impact of COVID-19 have been added to the LFS. The answers to these questions show that 79 000 employed people aged 15–74 years were absent during the whole reference week in December related to COVID-19. This means that among people who were absent during the entire reference week, 8.7 percent were absent due to COVID-19.

Among employees aged 15–74 years who were absent during the entire reference week, 8.0 percent, which corresponds to 64 000 people, stated that their absence was related to COVID-19. Furthermore, 8.7 percent of employees who were absent during part of the week, 117 000 people, stated that their absence was related to COVID-19. Among self-employed persons and assisting family members aged 15–74 years, 29.3 percent felt that they had less work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, while 17.8 percent felt that they had more work.

2022-02-24, 08:00.