-Latent job seekers are different from the unemployed because a large proportion of the former want to work few hours. Many of those who are full-time students and retirees want to work short part time. The report also shows that latent job seekers have a significantly lower job chance than the unemployed," says Charlotta Olofsson, statistician at the Labour Force Surveys at Statistics Sweden.

Who are the latent job seekers?

In 2024, the number of latent job seekers aged 15–74 was 273,000, of whom 133,000 were women and 140,000 were men. Compared to the rest of the Nordic countries and Europe, Sweden had a high share of latent job seekers. The level was considerably higher among young people, but also among the elderly.

Among the latent job seekers, 50.0 percent were aged 15-24, with a particularly high proportion among 15–17-year-olds, and 23.3 percent were aged 65-74. Almost three out of four latent jobseekers thus belonged to these age groups. This can be compared with 34.5 percent young people and 2.4 percent elderly among the unemployed. A significant proportion of young latent job seekers were studying full-time, and in the older age group, most reported being retired. Just above a quarter of the latent job seekers were people in the age group 25–64 years, corresponding to 73,000 people. Most of these were either long-term ill or belonged to the so-called "other reasons"-group, i.e. latent job seekers who were neither full-time students, retired nor long-term ill.

Latent job seekers are a heterogeneous group, where the size of the labour supply differs. For example, many full-time students and retirees wanted to work short part-time (1–19 hours/week), 63.7 and 47.7 percent respectively. This can be interpreted as meaning that their primary occupation – studies and retirement respectively – limits their willingness and opportunity to take on more extensive work. The latent job seekers who stated that they were long-term ill or belonged to the "other reasons"-group instead wanted more extensive work. Among these, most wanted to work at least long part-time (20 hours or more/week), which is more in line with the desired working hours of the unemployed.

Latent job seekers had a lower job chance compared to the unemployed

The probability of entering employment, the job chance, can be interpreted as a measure of how close a group is to the labour market. A higher job chance indicates a closer attachment to the labour market, while a lower one indicates the opposite. The report shows that latent job seekers have an average job chance of 10.3 percent, which is much lower than 28.1 percent, which was the average job chance among the unemployed. There is therefore a clear difference in job chances between those who are actively looking for work and those who are not. However, latent job seekers is a relatively heterogeneous group also in terms of job chances. Among the latent job seekers, retirees have the lowest job chance, while the "other reasons"-group has a job chance more comparable to that of the long-term unemployed.

The job chance for latent job seekers is also compared with those who cannot or do not want to work, which are referred to as the rest outside the labour force. The comparison shows that latent job seekers do not have a generally increased job chance compared to the rest outside the labour force, except for retirees. Among retirees, it is slightly more likely to go into employment as a latent job seeker. The job chances of students indicate an opposite relationship. Latent job seekers, on the other hand, show a much higher probability of entering the labour force compared to the rest outside the labour force. Even though the job chances of the latent job seekers generally do not differ from the rest outside the labour force, they can be regarded as a group with a somewhat closer attachment to the labour market.