Employment: Unemployment continues to rise

On Monday, the Employment Service presented the statistics of the past week (April 20 to April 27).

109,000 more people are unemployed today compared to March 1.

Last week, almost 13,700 unemployed were added. With a total of just under 414,500 people registered as unemployed, the unemployment rate has now reached 8.1 percent.

- Overall, it is a serious situation in the labor market. The number of registered unemployed continues to increase and is increasing at a fairly high rate, says Annika Sundén, Head of Analysis at the Employment Service to TT.

During the period March 1 to April 26, 62 918 people were notified of termination. Of these, 8,088 people have been notified of dismissal as a result of operations being closed down, for example due to bankruptcy.

Last week, approximately 2,784 people were notified. This is slightly less than the number of notifications during the whole of April last year, but lower than the latest weekly listings, says the Labor Office.

- Since the crisis began in early March, most people have been notified in the hotel and restaurant business, staffing and trade, says Annika Sundén in the Employment Service's press release.

Last Friday, Finance Minister Magdalena Andersson (S) said that the Swedish gross domestic product, GDP, could fall by as much as 10 percent in 2020 and unemployment could reach 13.5 percent, according to the government's worst-case scenario.

The finance minister said that Sweden is not there, but that the development is in a more negative direction than was assumed on April 15 when the government presented the spring bill.

The bill contained a main scenario and a more pessimistic scenario. Unemployment was then estimated to rise to 9 and 13.5 percent, respectively, in the two scenarios.