Swedish unemployment rises in April

Unemployment in Sweden climbed in April to 9.8 percent of the workforce with 483,000 registered job-seekers, exceeding expectations and up 80,000 on the corresponding month of 2009, a new report shows.

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The number aged 15-74-years-old and engaged in gainful employment amounted to 4,465,000 in April, showing no statistical change on last April.

In April 2009 unemployment amounted to 8.3 percent of the workforce with the April 2010 monthly change indicating that unemployment has not yet peaked, the report from Statistics Sweden (SCB) shows.

"Unemployment, both in the number of unemployed and as a share of the workforce, is still increasing," SCB writes.

For employment indicators the figures are however showing a slight positive trend, especially among men.

"Unemployment is climbing faster than expected. The employment forecast is broadly in line with what we had expected. This can indicate that the unemployment figure climbed as a result of temporary effects," said SEB analyst Olle Holmgren.

Holmgren explained that the unexpectedly high unemployment figure could be as a result of the number of full time students who are looking for work over the summer.

"It seems that a large part of the increase in unemployment is due to full-time students, who are looking for summer jobs. This can have a tendency to significantly impact the monthly figures, he added.

The strong stock market reaction in morning trading on Tuesday, with tumbling krona and interest rates, is explained by Olle Holmgren to have deeper lying causes and is not directly related to the unemployment figures.

"The market has started to question the global recovery. The release of another figure which further supports this pushes the market down," he said.

The Social Democrat economic affairs spokesperson, Thomas Östros, has called the figures worrying, and argued that it indicates that the government's policies are not working.

"It was a major and decisive mistake of the government to present a spring budget without any stimulating measures. This is a government which has abdicated its responsibility," said Östros, who predicted that this would be a key issue in the September general election.