Labour Force Surveys (LFS)
Upcoming publishing: 2024-03-26
The statistics describe labour market developments for the Swedish population aged 15–74. The LFS shows the number and percentage of employed and unemployed persons respectively, per month, quarter and year. It is the only source of continuous data on total unemployment and represents the official unemployment rate.
Labour Force Surveys (LFS), previous definitions
Information about changes in LFS – 2023-10-20
When publishing the LFS for September on October 20th, microlinked data for the period 2005-2020 will be available in the Swedish Statistical Database (SSD). The microlinking aims to bridge the time series gap that occurred when the LFS were adapted to the new EU framework regulation on social statistics (Regulation (EU) 2019/1700).
In conjunction with the publication of microlinked data, data from 2021 and onwards will be republished due to certain adjustments made. A new total population figure has been generated for the entire period, and minor micro data corrections have been made as part of an improvement process after the framework was implemented.
Casual employees have been included in working hours by agreement, and the duration of unemployment for the first quarter of 2021 has been adjusted for individuals with unemployment lasting 52 weeks or more.
Additionally, new age groups of 20-64, 20-65, 20-66, 16-65 and 16-66 years have been introduced in SSD, as the retirement age was raised in 2023.
Find on this page
Results
About the statistics
Contact
Key figures for Sweden
Labour force rate
74.5 %
Reference period: February 2024
0.2 %-unit
compared with the same period previous year
Unemployment rate
8.5 %
Reference period: February 2024
0.3 %-unit
compared with the same period previous year
Employment rate
68.1 %
Reference period: February 2024
-0.1 %-unit
compared with the same period previous year
Labour force rate (smoothed and seasonally adjusted)
75.3 %
Reference period: February 2024
Unemployment rate (smoothed and seasonally adjusted)
8.1 %
Reference period: February 2024
Employment rate (smoothed and seasonally adjusted)
69.2 %
Reference period: February 2024
Statistical news
2024-03-15
In February 2024, the number of employed people amounted to 5 174 000, not seasonally adjusted. Among these, 589 000 people were temporary employees, which is a decrease of 98 000 people compared to February 2023. The average number of hours worked per week was 171.0 million. The number of unemployed people amounted to 480 000, which corresponds to an unemployment rate of 8.5 percent. Seasonally adjusted and smoothed data showed that the employment rate was 69.2 percent and that there was an increase in both the number of unemployed people and the unemployment rate, which amounted to 8.1 percent.
All statistical news for this statisticTables and graphs
Tables in the Statistical Database
Publications
Documentation
Quality of the statistics (Quality report)
More information
Statistics Service
- Telephone
- +46 10 479 50 00
- Opening hours
Weekdays
9:00–12:00, 13:00–16:00
Simple URL: https://www.scb.se/am0401-en