”It is obviously pleasing that unemployment has decreased for two months in a row, but compared to a year ago, approximately 4,000 more are registered as unemployed. The unemployment rate is thus still high”, says Lars Lindvall, the Employment Service's forecasting manager, in a press release.
At the end of September, 364,000 people, equivalent to 6.9 percent of the workforce, were registered as unemployed with the country's employment agencies. Youth unemployment has decreased from 8.4 to 8.1 percent over a year.
Other figures also indicate a certain brightening of the labor market. Just over 4,000 more got jobs during the month compared to September last year. At the same time, fewer people registered as job seekers, according to the Employment Service's statistics.
The fact that the labor market has eased is confirmed by the falling youth unemployment.
”Young people are generally a economically sensitive group and are often favored early in the economic upturn”, says Lars Lindvall.
The notices of termination are, however, still at a high level, but lower than last year, nearly 5,100 were notified of termination in September compared to 7,600 a year ago.
Olle Lindström/TT
Facts: Why the figures differ
TT
The Employment Service and SCB report the unemployment rate in Sweden every month. But the statistics differ, often quite significantly, as an effect of the authorities measuring in different ways.
For example, youth unemployment at the Employment Service is around 8 percent, but 20-25 percent in SCB's figures, depending on the season.
The Employment Service uses the actual number of registered individuals with the agencies. And has a narrower age range. The total unemployment rate is measured in the age range 16-65 years. Youth unemployment refers to young people between 18 and 24 years.
Statistics Sweden (SCB) uses a sample survey. The age range is 15-74 years for total unemployment and 15-24 years for youth unemployment.
As a young unemployed person, a large proportion of full-time students are also counted in SCB's way of measuring (which is based on international criteria). It is often enough that as a full-time student you want a part-time job, or that you are waiting for a summer job that will start later, to be counted as unemployed.
Source: Employment Service, SCB
