Since the corona pandemic took hold of the economy in February and March, the number of unemployed has increased by around 100,000. At the end of October, 455,000 people, or 8.8 per cent of the labor force, were registered as unemployed with the Swedish Public Employment Service.
At the same time last year, unemployment was 7.1 percent.
But despite the fact that the economy is still cracking worryingly in many industries, unemployment is not rising.
It peaked sometime this summer.
Even though many new people are registered as unemployed, more people will find new jobs than at the same time last year.
Those who have recently lost their jobs find it relatively easy to find new work.
Then it is significantly worse for those who have been without a job for a long time, that number continues to increase and looks to be even worse.
At present, 173,000 people have been unemployed for a year or more, 24,000 more in a year - and the group that is on the verge of ending up among the long-term unemployed (longer than twelve months) is growing steadily.
Just over 100,000 have been unemployed for between six and twelve months.
"The time in unemployment is increasing on a broad front and more people are now approaching long-term unemployment," writes the Swedish Public Employment Service's head of analysis Annika Sundén in a comment.