A total of 466,000 people were registered as unemployed at the end of June, according to new figures by the Swedish Employment Agency (Arbetsförmedlingen), a rise of 130,000 compared to the same month last year. Or in other words, an unemployment rate that increased from 6.7 percent to 9.0 percent in one year.
"Those who first become unemployed when the demand for labour decreases are people in temporary employment and people who are new to the labour market, especially young people and foreign-born people," said Arbetsförmedlingen in a statement presenting the new statistics on Monday morning.
People born outside of Sweden made up more than half of the June unemployment figures, with 245,000 foreign-born registered as unemployed in June (up from 196,000 in June last year) compared to 221,000 Swedish-born (up from 140,000). Almost 120,000 of the foreign-born job-seekers were women and 126,000 men, and almost 196,000 were born in a non-European country, according to Arbetsförmedlingen's report.
The unemployment rate among foreign-born people in Sweden stood at 21.2 percent at the end of June (up from 18.8 percent last year) and 5.5 percent among people born in Sweden (up from 3.5 percent last year).
For people aged 18-24, unemployment increased from 8.2 percent in June last year to 13.2 percent this year.
Of everyone registered as unemployed, almost 161,000 had been without a job for more than a year (up by almost 20,000 from June 2019), including more than 87,000 from non-European countries (up by 7,000).
The unemployment rate was the highest in the regions Södermanland (11.4 percent), Skåne (11.3) and Gävleborg (11.1) regions in June, and the lowest in Gotland, Västerbotten and Norrbotten (6.7 percent).
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