Since 1 January, 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 within 2021 are possible for seasonally adjusted and smoothed data. However, comparisons with previous years are not advised. Throughout 2021, parallel measurements will be used to make it possible to link data backwards in time and make the series comparable with previous years.

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 the second quarter that is approximately 71 000 fewer than according to the previous method.

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

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

The labour force

There were 5 630 000 people aged 15–74 years in the labour force in the second quarter of 2021, not seasonally adjusted. There were 2 665 000 women and 2 965 000 men in the labour force. The relative labour force participation rate was 75.0 percent. For women it was 72.1 percent, and for men it was 77.7 percent. There were 693 000 young people aged 15–24 years in the labour force and the relative labour force participation rate among young people was 60.4 percent.

Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows that there were 5 557 000 people in the labour force in the second quarter, which corresponds to 73.9 percent of the population. Compared with the first quarter, the labour force increased by 51 000 persons and the labour force participation rate increased by 0.7 percentage points.

Employment

In the second quarter of 2021, there were 5 074 000 people aged 15–74 years in employment, not seasonally adjusted. There were 2 399 000 women and 2 675 000 men in employment. The employment rate was 67.6 percent. It was 65.0 percent for women and 70.1 percent for men. There were 484 000 young people aged 15–24 years in employment and the employment rate was 42.2 percent.

Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows that there were 5 046 000 employed persons and the employment rate was 67.1 percent. Compared with the first quarter, employment increased by 39 000 persons and the employment rate increased by 0.5 percentage points.

Employees

In the second quarter of 2021, there were 4 592 000 employees, not seasonally adjusted. Among employees, 2 275 000 were women, and 2 317 000 were men. There were 3 855 000 permanent employees, of whom 1 867 000 were women and 1 988 000 were men. The number of temporary employees was 737 000. Among temporary employees, 408 000 were women and 329 000 were men.

Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows that there were 4 562 000 employees, an increase of 40 000 persons compared with the first quarter. The number of permanent employees increased by 17 000 persons to 3 850 000 and the number of temporary employees increased by 23 000 persons to 712 000.

Hours worked

The total number of hours worked averaged 158.6 million per week, according to non-seasonally adjusted data for the second quarter of 2021.

Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows that the total number of hours worked averaged 152.0 million hours per week, an increase of 0.8 percent compared with the first quarter of 2021.

The majority of employed persons have an agreed working time of 35 hours or more per week, that is, full-time work. In the second quarter of 2021, 3 985 000 people worked full time, of whom 1 727 000 were women and 2 258 000 were men. In total, 272 000 people worked short part-time (1–19 hours) and 661 000 people worked long part-time (20–34 hours).

The average actual weekly hours worked among employed persons aged 15-74 years was 31.3 hours in the second quarter of 2021. The average weekly hours worked was 28.9 hours among women and 33.5 hours among men.

At work and absence

There were 4 534 000 people aged 15–74 years employed and working in the second quarter of 2021, not seasonally adjusted.

The LFS estimates the number of people who were absent during the whole week or parts of the week from their principal occupation, by main reason for absence. There were 1 820 000 people absent during the whole week or parts of the week in the second quarter of 2021, not seasonally adjusted. There were 548 000 people absent for the whole week, not seasonally adjusted. Among these people, 189 000 were absent due to holidays and 139 000 were absent due to illness. There were 9 000 people absent for the whole week due to lack of work.

It is common for people who are absent due to lack of work or lay-offs to be absent for only part of the week. There were 23 000 people absent for the whole week or part of the week due to lay-offs. The corresponding figure for people who stated lack of work as their main reason for absence was 17 000.

Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows that 4 281 000 people were at work, an increase of 29 000 people compared with the first quarter of 2021.

Underemployment

Among employed persons aged 15–74 years, 329 000 were underemployed in the second quarter of 2021. Among underemployed persons, 167 000 were women and 162 000 were men. Underemployed persons accounted for 6.5 percent of employed persons.

Unemployment

In the second quarter of 2021, there were 556 000 unemployed persons aged 15–74 years, not seasonally adjusted. This corresponds to an unemployment rate of 9.9 percent. There were 266 000 unemployed women and 290 000 unemployed men. The unemployment rate was 10.0 percent for women and 9.8 percent for men.

Among people aged 15–74 years, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows that there were 510 000 unemployed persons, which corresponds to an unemployment rate of 9.2 percent in the second quarter of 2021. Compared with the first quarter the number of unemployed persons increased by 12 000 and the unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage point.

There were 165 000 long-term unemployed persons (unemployed for at least 27 weeks) aged 15–74 years in the second quarter of 2021. Among long-term unemployed persons, 73 000 were women and 92 000 were men.

There were 209 000 unemployed young people aged 15–24 years, not seasonally adjusted. This corresponds to a youth unemployment rate of 30.1 percent. Among unemployed youth, 131 000 were full-time students.

Among young people aged 15–24 years, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in both the number of unemployed and the unemployment rate compared with the first quarter. The number of unemployed persons increased by 8 000 to 159 000, and the unemployment rate increased by 0.5 percentage points to 25.2 percent.

Not in the labour force

The group ‘not in the labour force’ includes people who are classified as neither employed nor unemployed. In the second quarter of 2021, there were 1 880 000 people aged 15–74 years not in the labour force, of whom 1 029 000 were women and 851 000 were men. Among people not in the labour force, 901 000 were pensioners, while 494 000 were full-time students. There were 241 000 people who reported that they were on long-term sick leave.

Latent job seekers

There were 238 000 latent job seekers aged 15–74 years in the second quarter of 2021, of whom 123 000 were women and 115 000 were men. There were 96 000 latent job seekers among young people aged 15–24 years.

Unused labour supply

Unemployed persons, underemployed persons and latent job seekers together comprise the unused labour supply. In the second quarter of 2021, among people in the aged 15–74 years, the unused labour supply averaged 27.1 million hours per week. The unused labour supply corresponds to 678 000 full-time employments with a 40-hour working week.

Labour market for people aged 20-64 years

The relative labour force participation rate among people aged 20–64 years was 88.4 percent in the second quarter of 2021, not seasonally adjusted. For women, the relative labour force participation rate was 85.6 percent and for men it was 91.0 percent. Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows that the labour force participation rate was 87.7 percent, an increase by 0.6 percentage points compared to the first quarter of 2021.

In the second quarter of 2021, the proportion of employed people aged 20–64 years was 81.1 percent, not seasonally adjusted. For women, this figure was 78.5 percent, and for men it was 83.5 percent. Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows that the employment rate was 80.5 percent, an increase by 0.6 percentage points compared with the first quarter of 2021.

According to non-seasonally adjusted data, the unemployment rate in the age group 20–64 years was 8.2 percent. The unemployment rate was 8.3 percent for women and 8.2 percent for men. According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the unemployment rate was 8.2 percent.

Swedish born and foreign born persons aged 20–64 years

In the second quarter of 2021, the relative labour force participation rate among Swedish born persons aged 20–64 years was 89.7 percent, not seasonally adjusted. Among Swedish born women, the corresponding figure was 87.9 percent and among Swedish born men it was 91.5 percent. Among foreign born persons aged 20–64 years, the relative labour force participation rate was 84.5 percent in the second quarter of 2021. The labour force participation rate was 79.3 percent among foreign born women and 89.5 percent among foreign born men. According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the labour force participation rate increased compared with the first quarter among both Swedish born and foreign born persons. Among Swedish born persons, the labour force participation rate increased by 0.6 percentage points to 89.1 percent, and among foreign born persons it increased by 0.9 percentage points to 83.8 percent.

In the second quarter of 2021, the proportion of employed persons among Swedish born persons aged 20–64 years was 85.4 percent, not seasonally adjusted. The employment rate was 84.2 percent among Swedish born women and 86.5 percent among Swedish born men the employment rate. Among foreign born persons the employment rate was 68.7 percent. Among foreign born women the corresponding figure was 62.2 percent, while among foreign born men it was 75.0 percent. Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows that the employment rate increased among both Swedish born and foreign born persons compared with the first quarter of 2021. Employment increased by 0.5 percentage points to 84.9 percent among Swedish born persons, and by 1.0 percentage point to 67.9 percent among foreign born persons.

The relative unemployment rate among Swedish born persons aged 20–64 years was 4.8 percent in the second quarter of 2021. This corresponds to an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent among Swedish born women and 5.4 percent among Swedish born men. The unemployment rate among foreign born persons was 18.6 percent. Among foreign born women, the unemployment rate was 21.5 percent, and among foreign born men the corresponding figure was 16.1 percent. According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the unemployment rate for Swedish born persons was 4.7 percent, an increase by 0.1 percentage point compared with the first quarter of 2021. The unemployment rate among foreign born persons decreased by 0.3 percentage points to 18.9 percent.

2021-11-04, at 09:30.