image source: mentehealth.com
The above quote was at one time attributed to American writer Mark Twain. That has now come into doubt, but there is no doubt the phrase still comes in handy. Still, sometimes statistics, though imperfect, are what you have. What we have as of last Thursday are the Swedish unemployment figures for April.
According to the Swedish Public Employment Service (for those in Sweden, arbetsförmedlingen), only 6.3% of working age persons were signed up with the unemployment bureau as of the end of April. According to Statistics Sweden, it hasn’t been this low since 2008.
Not ‘pink slip’ as in Cali car ownership
The economy these last years has been very confusing. We’re supposed to be in very bad shape. Pink slips have been handed out left and right. Volvo, Trustly, Kry, Storytel and Klarna are some big Swedish names that have signaled coming layoffs. Offsetting these numbers, however, is an overall shortage of workers that is left over from covid.
How much workers work is another figure that gets tossed around in regard to a country’s economy. The Swedish measure, sysselsättning, is translated as employment in this context (although it can also mean just keeping busy). Statistics Sweden defines an employed, sysselsatt, person as someone who, during a reference week, performed some work for at least one hour as an employee. April statistics show that the vast majority of people in Sweden work 35+ hours a week., as opposed to part time.
For the first quarter of 2023 and using this employment standard, 69.5% of people (this figure adjusted for seasonal variations, etc.) between the ages of 15 to 74 years old were employed.
The foreign borns
“Foreign borns” is a huge, and hugely diverse group, but Statistics Sweden works the numbers anyway. To start, 87.9% of Swedish born persons are in the labor force, which means that they are between 20 and 64 years of age. That number is 86.7% among foreign borns. Most of Sweden is in the work force.
The relative employment rate (see sysselsättning above) for the first quarter of 2023 was 85.5 percent among Swedish born persons and 74.7 percent for foreign born persons. Happily, the number of foreign borns who got a job is up a couple percentage points since last quarter. (Both figures are adjusted for seasonal and other variations.)
The biggest difference was in the unemployment figures for the first quarter of 2023. For Swedish born persons, the unemployment rate was only 3.4 percent. It was 13.8 percent for foreign born persons according to official statistical figures. It’s a significant difference. It could be more, or less, than one thought.
Statistics Sweden is the source for all these figures. If going down a rabbit hole on numbers is a fun way of spending an early summer afternoon for someone, a look at the latest numbers gives an interesting picture of Sweden.