Sweden’s unemployment rate rose to 9.7% in May 2025, well above 8.7% in the same month of the previous year. This marked the highest level since January, as the number of unemployed people increased by 65 thousand from a year earlier to 561 thousand, while employment also rose by 44 thousand to 5.23 million. The employment rate increased by 0.3 percentage points to 68.6%, and the labor force participation rate climbed by 1.1 percentage points to 76%. The average total number of hours worked per week amounted to 167.4 million. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the unemployment rate held steady at 8.7%, unchanged from the same period last year.
