Sweden jobless rate rises to 9.2 pc, highest in nine months

The Swedish unemployment rate increased in March to the highest level in nine months, figures from Statistics Sweden showed on Wednesday.

The unadjusted jobless rate climbed to 9.2 per cent in March from February’s stable rate of 8.5 per cent.

In the same month last year, the unemployment rate was 7.7 per cent.

The number of unemployed people rose to 525,000 in March from 480,000 in February.

Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 accounted for 199,000 unemployed people, or 29.6 per cent of the workforce, the agency said.

Data showed that the employment rate increased to 68.3 per cent from 68.1 per cent, representing 5.188 million employed people.