So far, a total of 6,787 people have been told in September they will lose their jobs, Sweden’s National Public Employment Agency (Arbetsförmedlingen) reports.

The figure compares to 7,989 layoff notices for the month of September last year, marking the first time this year that monthly layoff figures have dropped year-on-year.

It was one year ago when redundancy notices started to rise in the wake of the far-reaching financial crisis which erupted following the collapse of the Lehman Brothers investment bank in the United States.

In October and November, layoff announcements in Sweden peaked at roughly 20,000 per month.

At the end of last week, 255,829 people were registered with the jobs agency as unemployed.

The figure marks a reduction of 3,433 people compared with the previous week and 105,854 more than the corresponding week last year.

The number of people with employment support rose to 72,882, an increase of 17 people compared with last week and a reduction of 9,767 from the same week one year ago.

At the same time, 129,403 people were enrolled in employment support programmes, an increase of 3,782 people compared to the prior week and an increase of 60,107 compared to the same week last year.