22.04.202606:19:10UTC+00Swedish Jobless Rate Climbs to 9.7%

Sweden’s unemployment rate rose to 9.7% in March 2026, up from 8.5% in March 2025, marking the highest level since May of the previous year. The total number of unemployed increased by 79,000 over the year to 565,000 people, comprising 268,000 women and 296,000 men, corresponding to unemployment rates of 9.6% and 9.9%, respectively.

Among young people aged 15–24, 211,000 were unemployed, resulting in a youth unemployment rate of 30.1%. Of these, 163,000 were full-time students. The number of long-term unemployed—defined as those jobless for at least 27 weeks—stood at 207,000, including 95,000 women and 113,000 men.

At the same time, total employment among people aged 15–74 declined by 10,000 to 5.23 million, consisting of 2.521 million women and 2.709 million men. The average total number of hours worked per week was 172.3 million. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the overall unemployment rate was 8.7%, while the seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate was 24.2%.