Swedish unemployment dropped significantly in the Q3 of 2022

– The unemployment continued to decrease during the third quarter, which shows that the labor market was strong despite the global situation. The unemployment rate for the third quarter was at a similar level as before the pandemic, says Andreas Tano Bask, statistician at the Labor Force Surveys at Statistics Sweden.

The labour force

The number of persons in the labour force aged 15-74 years was 5 657 000 in the third quarter of 2022, not seasonally adjusted. The number of women in the labour force amounted to 2 679 000 and the number of men to 2 979 000. The relative labour force participation rate was 75.0 percent. Among women it was 72.3 percent and among men it was 77.7 percent.

Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in the number of persons in the labour force compared with adjacent quarters. There were 5 620 000 persons in the labour force, which corresponds to 74.6 percent of the population.

Employment

In the third quarter of 2022, there were 5 290 000 persons aged 15–74 in employment, not seasonally adjusted, which is an increase of 136 000 compared to the corresponding quarter a year ago. This corresponds to an employment rate of 70.2 percent, an increase of 1.6 percentage points. There were 2 489 000 employed women, an increase of 58 000, and the number of employed men increased by 78 000 to 2 801 000. Among women, the employment rate was 67.2 percent, an increase of 1.4 percentage points. Among men, it was 73.1 percent, an increase of 1.8 percentage points. There were 582 000 young people aged 15–24 years in employment, an increase of 64 000. The employment rate for people aged 15-24 was 49.7 percent, an increase of 4.5 percentage points.

Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data indicates an increase in both the number and share of employed persons compared with adjacent quarters. In the third quarter of 2022, there were 5 218 000 employed persons, which corresponds to an employment rate of 69.2 percent.

Employees

In the third quarter of 2022, there were 4 777 000 employees, not seasonally adjusted, which is an increase of 135 000 compared to the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Among those, 2 345 000 were women, an increase of 53 000, and 2 432 000 were men, an increase of 82 000. There were 3 971 000 permanent employees, an increase of 98 000. Among permanent employees, the number of women was 1 909 000 and the number of men increased by 63 000 to 2 062 000. There were 806 000 temporary employees. Among them 436 000 were women and 371 000 men.

Compared with adjacent quarters, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in the number of employees, in permanent employees and in temporary employees. According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, the number of employees was 4 708 000. The corresponding figure for permanent employees was 3 964 000 and for temporary employees 745 000.

Hours worked

The average number of hours worked per week in the third quarter of 2022 amounted to 139.5 million hours, not seasonally adjusted. In calendar-adjusted figures, this corresponds to an increase of 2.6 percent compared with the third quarter of 2021. Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data indicates an increase in the average number of hours worked per week compared to adjacent quarters. The number of hours worked averaged to 156.3 million per week.

The majority of employed persons have an agreed working time of 35 hours or more per week, that is, full-time work. Agreed working time in 2021 and 2022 excludes secondary jobs. In the third quarter of 2022, 4 121 000 persons worked full time, which is an increase of 117 000 persons compared to the third quarter of 2021. Among them 1 789 000 were women, an increase of 69 000, and the number of men increased by 48 000 to 2 332 000. In total, 214 000 persons worked short part-time (1–19 hours) and 637 000 persons worked long part-time (20-34 hours).

The average actual hours worked among employed persons aged 15–74 years amounted to 26.4 hours per week in the third quarter of 2022. Women worked 24.2 hours per week and men worked 28.3 hours per week.

Underemployment

Among employed persons aged 15–74, 305 000 were underemployed in the third quarter of 2022. Among them, 146 000 were women and 159 000 were men. Underemployed persons accounted for 5.8 percent of employed persons.

Unemployment

In the third quarter of 2022, there were 367 000 unemployed persons aged 15-74, not seasonally adjusted, which is a decrease of 95 000 persons compared to the third quarter of 2021. This corresponds to an unemployment rate of 6.5 percent, a decrease of 1.7 percentage points. There were 190 000 unemployed women, a decrease of 41 000, and 178 000 unemployed men, a decrease of 54 000. The unemployment rate for women decreased by 1.5 percentage points to 7.1 percent, and the male unemployment rate decreased by 1.8 percentage points to 6.0 percent.

Among persons aged 15–74, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows decreases in both the number and share of unemployed persons, compared to adjacent quarters. In the third quarter of 2022, there were 402 000 unemployed persons, which corresponds to an unemployment rate of 7.2 percent.

There were 133 000 long-term unemployed persons (unemployed for at least 27 weeks) aged 15–74 years in the third quarter of 2022, a decrease of 41 000 compared to the third quarter of 2021. Among long-term unemployed persons, 61 000 were women, a decrease of 19 000, and 72 000 were men, a decrease of 22 000.

There were 118 000 unemployed young persons aged 15–24, not seasonally adjusted. This corresponds to an unemployment rate of 16.9 percent, a decrease of 4.0 percentage points, compared to the third quarter of 2021.

Among young persons aged 15–24, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows a decrease in the share of unemployed persons compared with adjacent quarters. The number of unemployed young persons amounted to 139 000, corresponding to an unemployment rate of 20.7 percent.

Not in the labour force

The group ‘not in the labour force’ includes persons who are not classified as employed nor as unemployed. In the third quarter of 2022, there were 1 881 000 persons not in the labour force. Among them, 1 027 000 were women and 854 000 were men.

Among persons not in the labour force, there were 880 000 retired persons, 367 000 full-time students and 293 000 persons who reported that they were on long-term sick leave.

Latent job seekers

There were 250 000 latent job seekers aged 15–74 years in the third quarter of 2022, a decrease of 28 000 compared to the third quarter of 2021. Among young people aged 15–24, the number of latent job seekers decreased by 18 000 to 132 000.

Unused labour supply

Unemployed persons, underemployed persons and latent job seekers together comprise the unused labour supply. In the third quarter of 2022, the unused labour supply averaged 20.5 million hours per week, which is 3.7 million hours less compared to the third quarter of 2021. The unused labour supply corresponds to 513 000 full-time employments with 40-hour work weeks.

Labour market for persons aged 20-64 years

The population presented by the LFS is comprised of persons aged 15–74 years. However, labour market participation among younger and older in this age group is considerably lower for natural reasons, as this group contains large shares of students and retired persons. To better approach what can be seen as the core of the actively working population, the situation of the age group 20–64 years is described in the following section.

The relative labour force participation rate among persons aged 20–64 years amounted to 88.2 percent in the third quarter of 2022, not seasonally adjusted. For women, the relative workforce participation rate was 85.5 percent, and for men it was 90.7 percent. Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows that the labour force participation rate amounted to 87.7 percent.

In the third quarter of 2022, the share of employed persons aged 20–64 was 83.1 percent, not seasonally adjusted, an increase of 1.2 percentage points compared to the third quarter 2021. For women, the corresponding figure was 80.2 percent. For men, it increased by 1.9 percentage points to 86.0 percent. Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in the employment rate compared to adjacent quarters, which was 82.4 percent.

According to not seasonally adjusted data, the unemployment rate in the age group 20–64 amounted to 5.7 percent, a decrease of 1.7 percentage points compared to the third quarter of 2021. The unemployment rate for women was 6.2 percent, down by 1.4 percentage points. The male unemployment rate decreased by 2.1 percentage points and amounted to 5.2 percent. Compared with adjacent quarters, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows a decrease in the share of unemployed persons, which was 6.0 percent.

Swedish born and foreign born persons aged 20–64 years

The relative labour force participation rate among Swedish born persons aged 20–64 years was 89.0 percent in the third quarter of 2022, not seasonally adjusted. Among Swedish born women, the relative participation rate amounted to 87.5 percent, and among Swedish born men it was 90.5 percent. Among foreign born persons aged 20–64 years, the relative participation rate was 85.7 percent. The corresponding figure was 80.0 percent among foreign born women, and 91.5 percent among foreign born men. Compared with adjacent quarters, seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in the labour force participation rate for foreign born persons, but a decrease for Swedish born persons. The labour force participation rate amounted to 88.5 percent among Swedish born persons, and it was 85.3 among foreign born persons.

In the third quarter of 2022, the share of employed Swedish born persons aged 20–64 was 86.6 percent, not seasonally adjusted. Among Swedish born women, the employment rate was 85.3 percent and among Swedish born men the employment rate was 87.7 percent. Among foreign born persons, the employment rate was 73.5 percent, an increase of 3.2 percentage points. The employment rate for foreign born women was 66.4 percent. For foreign born men it increased by 5.0 percentage points to 80.8 percent. Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data shows an increase in the employment rate compared to adjacent quarters for both Swedish born and foreign born persons. The employment rate was 85.9 percent among Swedish born and 72.7 percent among foreign born persons.

The relative unemployment rate among Swedish born persons aged 20–64 years was 2.8 percent in the third quarter of 2022, a decrease of 1.3 percentage points compared to the third quarter of 2021. Among Swedish born women, the unemployment rate decreased by 1.1 percentage points to 2.5 percent. The male unemployment rate among Swedish born was 3.0 percent, down by 1.5 percentage points. The unemployment rate among foreign born persons was 14.2 percentage points, down by 3.4 percentage points. For foreign born women it was 16.9 percent, and for foreign born men it was 11.7 percent, a decrease of 2.9 and 3.9 percentage points, respectively. According to seasonally adjusted and smoothed data, unemployment decreased compared with adjacent quarters and amounted to 3.0 percent among Swedish born persons and 14.7 percent among foreign born persons.