For a large part of the post-war period, Swedish unemployment has been below four percent.
During the 1970s, Sweden even had about 2 percent unemployment.
In the early 1980s, unemployment rose to over 3 percent and people then started talking about mass unemployment.
During the crisis of the 1990s, unemployment rose to a maximum of over ten percent.
According to economics professor Lars Magnusson, Sweden has had three occasions with a general mass unemployment - that is, when unemployment becomes widespread in society.
In 1922, unemployment was about 25 percent of the labor force.
In the early thirties it was around 20 percent - and when the crisis of the 90s was at its worst, it peaked at 11 percent.
However, one should be a little careful with time comparisons as the definition of unemployment has changed several times over time.
Big differences between different groups
Since the crisis in the 1990s, it appears that unemployment has risen to a much higher level than before.
At the same time, unemployment looks different in different parts of the country and within different social groups.
During the first quarter of this year, according to the authority's Statistics Sweden's calculation, unemployment was 4.6 per cent among domestic-born, while it was as high as 20 per cent for foreign-born.
- For some groups it goes like the train.
We can not talk about unemployment there at all, but in other parts of the labor market there is definitely very high unemployment.
In some groups, there is mass unemployment, says Lars Magnusson.