Sweden's unemployment rate increased to 6.8 percent in May 2019 from 6.5 percent in the same month of the previous year and above market expectations of 6.5 percent. The number of unemployed rose by 21 thousand to 373 thousand while employment decreased by 6 thousand to 5.10 million. By genders, the jobless rate was 6.4 percent among women and 7.2 percent among men. The unemployment rate among young people was 22.3 percent, an increase of 3.9 percentage points compared with May 2018. Meantime, the employment rate went down to 67.9 percent from 68.5 in May 2018 and the activity rate also fell to 72.9 percent from 73.2 percent a year ago. Seasonally adjusted, the unemployment rate was 6.4 percent, up from 5.9 percent in the previous month. Unemployment Rate in Sweden averaged 5.96 percent from 1980 until 2019, reaching an all time high of 10.50 percent in June of 1997 and a record low of 1.30 percent in July of 1989.
Unemployment Rate in Sweden is expected to be 6.90 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Unemployment Rate in Sweden to stand at 6.50 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the Sweden Unemployment Rate is projected to trend around 6.60 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.