– We see signs of a weakening development on the labour market. For example, employment does not increase at its previous rate, and the decrease in unemployment appears to have stagnated, says Elin Bandh, statistician at the Labour Force Surveys at Statistics Sweden.

Labour force

In December 2022, the number of people in the labour force aged 15–74 was 5 525 000, not seasonally adjusted. The number of women in the labour force was 2 602 000 and the number of men was 2 923 000. The relative labour force participation rate amounted to 73.1 percent. Among women it was 70.0 percent and for men it was 76.2 percent.

For seasonally adjusted and smoothed data the number of people in the labour force amounted to 5 643 000. This is an increase compared with nearby months. The labour force participation rate amounted to 74.7 percent.

Employment

In December 2022, there were 5 146 000 employed people aged 15–74, not seasonally adjusted. The number of employed women amounted to 2 411 000 and the number of employed men was 2 735 000. The employment rate was 68.1 percent. Among women the employment rate amounted to 64.9 percent and among men the employment rate was 71.2 percent.

For seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the number of employed people amounted to 5 232 000. This is an increase compared with nearby months. The employment rate was 69.2 percent.

Employees

In December 2022, there were 4 626 000 employees, not seasonally adjusted. Among women there were 2 275 000 employees and among men the number of employees amounted to 2 351 000. There were 3 973 000 permanent employees, of which 1 914 000 were women and 2 059 000 were men. The number of temporary employees amounted to 653 000. Among women the number of temporary employees was 362 000 and among men the number of temporary employees was 292 000.

For seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the number of employees was 4 717 000. The corresponding figure for permanent employees was 3 984 000 and for temporary employees 733 000. Compared with nearby months, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in the number of employees and permanent employees, and a decrease in the number of temporary employees.

Hours worked

The average number of hours worked in December 2022 amounted to 147.5 million per week, not seasonally adjusted. In calendar-adjusted figures, this corresponds to an increase of 2.5 percent compared with December 2021.

According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data there was an increase in the average number of hours worked compared with nearby months. The number of hours amounted to 157.7 million per week.

Unemployment

In December 2022, there were 380 000 unemployed people aged 15–74 years, not seasonally adjusted. The corresponding unemployment rate amounted to 6.9 percent. The number of unemployed women was 191 000 and the number of unemployed men was 189 000. The unemployment rate for women was 7.3 percent and the unemployment rate for men was 6.4 percent. The number of long-term unemployed (unemployed for at least 27 weeks) was 129 000, a decrease of 33 000. The number of long-term unemployed women decreased with 28 000 to 59 000 and the number of long-term unemployed men was 70 000. There were 122 000 unemployed young people aged 15–24, corresponding to an unemployment rate of 20.7 percent. Among unemployed young people, 74 000 persons were full-time students.

For seasonally adjusted and smoothed data there were 411 000 unemployed people, which corresponds to an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent, among people aged 15–74 years. Among young people aged 15–24 the number of unemployed amounted to 148 000, corresponding to an unemployment rate of 21.9 percent. Compared with nearby months, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in both the number of unemployed and the unemployment rate among young people.

Unused labour supply

Unemployed people, underemployed people and latent job seekers together comprise the unused labour supply. In December 2022, the unused labour supply averaged 20.7 million hours per week. The unused labour supply corresponds to 518 000 full-time employments with 40-hour work weeks.

2023-02-07.