At the end of August, 331,000 or 6.4 percent of the workforce were registered as unemployed with the country’s employment offices. It is true that it is still slightly less than at the same time last year, but compared to previous months, unemployment has turned up.
“It is too early to talk about a shift because we have only seen the increase this month. But we are following the development closely and our latest forecast says that unemployment will increase further this year,” says analysis director Eva Samakovlis in a written comment.
Other signals also clearly point to a deterioration in the labor market.
More people register as unemployed, fewer of those registered get jobs and there are fewer jobs in the job bank to apply for than a year ago.
So many have been notified
In addition, the notifications have been at steadily higher levels month after month. In August, 3,400 people were notified of redundancy, roughly 400 more than in the same month last year. So far this year, approximately 47,000 have been notified of dismissal, compared to nearly 16,000 between January and August last year.
The employment agency wants to deal a blow to the importance of education in getting a job. Among those without a high school education, the unemployment rate is 20 percent, while those with at least a high school qualification is the corresponding figure of five percent.
“The figures on education levels put the finger on what we need to work on more in the future, namely to ensure that more people are educated,” says the authority’s outgoing Director General Maria Mindhammar in a press release.