Swedish Jobless Rate Rises to 8.5%
2026-09-16 06:15
By
Joshua Ferrer
1 min. read
Sweden’s unemployment rate rose to 8.5% in August 2026 from 8.4% in the same period a year earlier.
The total number of unemployed people increased by 19.3 thousand from August 2025 to 505.2 thousand, which consists of 251 thousand unemployed women and 255 thousand unemployed men, corresponding to 8.9% and 8.2%, respectively.
Among people aged 15-24, 144 thousand were unemployed, corresponding to a youth unemployment rate of 18.4%.
The number of long-term unemployed, defined as those jobless for at least 27 weeks, fell by 36 thousand to 168 thousand, with women accounting for 73,000 and men 95,000.
Meanwhile, employment among people aged 15-74 rose by 102.6 thousand from a year earlier to 5.4 million, including 2.58 million women, up 61,000, and 2.85 million men.
The average total number of hours worked per week stood at 128.7 million.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the unemployment rate was 8.7%, while the youth unemployment stood at 23.8%.