– We have a continued increase in employment and the number of hours worked is also increasing. However, we note that the previous decrease in unemployment has begun to level off, says Andreas Tano Bask, statistician at the Labor Force Surveys at Statistics Sweden.

Labour force

In October 2022, the number of people in the labour force aged 15–74 was 5 586 000, not seasonally adjusted. This is an increase of 108 000 compared to October 2021. The number of women in the labour force was 2 633 000 and the number of men was 2 953 000, an increase of 60 000. The relative labour force participation rate increased with 1.0 percentage points to 74.1 percent. Among women it was 71.1 percent and among men it was 77.0 percent.

For seasonally adjusted and smoothed data the number of people in the labour force amounted to 5 632 000, an increase compared with recent months, corresponding to a labour force participation rate of 74.6 percent.

Employment

In October 2022, there were 5 190 000 employed people aged 15–74, not seasonally adjusted. This is an increase of 130 000 compared to October 2021. The number of employed women increased with 63 000 to 2 433 000 and the number of employed men increased with 67 000 to 2 757 000. The employment rate increased by 1.3 percentage points to 68.8 percent. Among women the employment rate was 65.7 percent, and among men the employment rate was 71.9 percent.

Smoothed and seasonally adjusted data shows an increase in both the number and the share of employed people compared with recent months. There were 5 224 000 employed people, corresponding to an employment rate of 69.2 percent.

Employees

In October 2022, there was an increase of 119 000 to 4 678 000 employees, not seasonally adjusted. Among women there were 2 279 000 employees and among men the number of employees amounted to 2 398 000. There were 3 961 000 permanent employees, an increase by 87 000. Among women there were 1 884 000 permanent employees and among men there were 2 077 000. The number of temporary employees amounted to 717 000. Among women the number of temporary employees was 395 000 and among men the number of temporary employees was 321 000.

For seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the number of employees was 4 704 000. The corresponding figure for permanent employees was 3 963 000 and for temporary employees 741 000. Compared with nearby months, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in the number of permanent employees and a decrease in the number of temporary employees.

Hours worked

The average number of hours worked in October 2022 amounted to 177.8 million per week, not seasonally adjusted. In calendar-adjusted figures, this corresponds to an increase of 2.2 percent compared with October 2021.

According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data there was an increase in the average number of hours worked compared to nearby months. The number of hours amounted to 157.4 million per week.

Unemployment

In October 2022, there were 396 000 unemployed people aged 15–74 years, not seasonally adjusted. It corresponds to an unemployment rate of 7.1 percent. The number of unemployed women was 200 000 and the number of unemployed men was 196 000. The female unemployment rate was 7.6 percent, and the male unemployment rate was 6.6 percent. The number of long-term unemployed (unemployed for at least 27 weeks) decreased by 31 000 to 124 000 compared to October 2021. Among both women and men, the number of long-term unemployed was 62 000. There were 136 000 unemployed young people aged 15–24, corresponding to an unemployment rate of 21.4 percent. Among unemployed young people, 85 000 persons were full-time students.

For seasonally adjusted and smoothed data in October 2022 there were 409 000 unemployed people, which corresponds to an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent, among people aged 15–74 years. Compared with nearby months, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows a decrease in the number and rate of unemployment people aged 15–74 years. Among young people aged 15–24 the number of unemployed amounted to 146 000, corresponding to an unemployment rate of 21.6 percent. An increase in the number and rate of unemployment people aged 15–24 years, compared with nearby months.

Unused labour supply

Unemployed people, underemployed people and latent job seekers together comprise the unused labour supply. In October 2022, the unused labour supply averaged 20.0 million hours per week. The unused labour supply corresponds to 500 000 full-time employments with 40-hour work weeks.

There were 293 000 underemployed people in October 2022, of which 126 000 were women and 167 000 were men. The number of latent job seekers was 251 000. Among the latent job seekers, 116 000 were women and 135 000 were men.

2022-12-06.