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UNEMPLOYMENT

Swedish unemployment continues decline

Sweden's unemployment rate continued to decline in October to 7.5 percent from 7.8 percent in September, Statistics Sweden announced on Thursday.

Published: 18 November 2010 10:43 CET

A total of 369,000 were out of work last month, compared with 385,000 the previous month, the agency said in a statement.

“The labour market continues to develop in a positive direction with increasing employment, more hours worked and decreasing underemployment. The positive development is strengthened since unemployment tends toward a decrease and the number of long-term unemployed is not increasing,” the agency added.

In October, the number of employed aged 15 to 74 increased by 1.1 percentage points or 112,000 to 4.57 million for an employment rate of 64.9 percent. Among those aged 25 to 54, the number of employed increased by 92,000 to 3.15 million.

The number of unemployed youth aged 15 to 24 was 137,000, corresponding to a youth unemployment rate of 22.9 percent. Out of these unemployed, 65,000 studied full-time.

The total labour force amounted to 4.98 million people for a labour force rate of 70.8 percent, 74.1 percent for men and 67.4 percent for women.

Out of the 369,000 unemployed, 121,000 were full-time students. The number of long-term unemployed amounted to 123,000 in October. The number not in the labour force was 2.1 million, while those outside the labour force due to sickness dropped by 62,000 as the number of pensioners increased by 43,000.

The labour supply not utilised amounted to 18.9 million hours per week, or 473,000 full-time jobs, with a full-time job representing a 40-hour week.

Seasonally adjusted, the unemployment rate was 8.1 percent last month, down slightly from 8.2 percent in September. According to the agency, the employment rate was 65.1 percent, representing 4.58 million people in work.

“The trend for the number of employed is positive for both sexes, but stronger for men,” the agency reported.

According to seasonally adjusted data, the number of unemployed was 404,000. The number of employees increased by 113,000 persons, with growth almost exclusively within the private sector.

The number of permanently employed increased by 70,000 to 3.46 million, mostly among men.

Seasonally adjusted, the number of hours worked also rose 5.3 percent to 159.1 million. Of the hours worked, 2 million hours were performed by Swedish residents employed abroad.

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BUSINESS

Unemployment in France falls slightly despite the lockdown

Unemployment in France has fallen slightly, despite the ongoing ravages of the health crisis and consequent lockdown, latest statistics show.

Published: 27 April 2021 16:46 CEST
Unemployment in France falls slightly despite the lockdown
Photo: Stephane du Sakatin/AFP

The number of unemployed job seekers in mainland France fell by 0.4 percent in the first three months of 2021, according to figures published by the French Ministry of Labour on Tuesday.

There were 3,560,600 unemployed registered at the Pôle Emploi (unemployment office), 12,200 fewer than during the last three months of 2020.

This follows a 2.7 percent fall in the final three months of 2020 – but the rate is still up 6.8 percent compared with the first three months of 2020, before Europe began to feel the economic impact of the Covid pandemic.

Currently all ‘non essential’ shops in France have been closed since April 3rd, while bars, restaurants, cafés, gyms, cinemas, theatres, museums and tourist sites have been closed since October 2020.

Despite the fall the total number of job seekers, the number of people who were in work but with reduced hours was up by 0.8 percent at the start of 2021, to 2,156,300.

That means that in total 5,716,900 people in mainland France were registered with Pôle emploi during this period, an increase of 4.9 percent compared with a year ago.

“Over the course of 2020, in one year, unemployment rose by 8 percent. This is obviously a lot, but we must remember that during the crisis of 2008-2009, unemployment leapt by 25 percent, so we can see that the government assistance is working,” Minister of Labour Élisabeth Borne told BFMTV on Tuesday.

The French government has put together a huge package of economic aid to try and mitigate the effects of the repeated lockdowns, from chômage partiel (furlough) schemes for employees to aid packages for business owners and the self-employed. But many small retailers have been hit hard by the three periods of closure for non-essential shops, while the tourist, leisure and hospitality sectors have also had a devastating year.

The economic downturn linked to the pandemic has disproportionately affected young people in France.  Across all categories of job seekers (unemployed and with reduced hours), the latest figures show a rise of 7.1 percent in a year for those under 25, compared to 4.5 percent for the 25-29 age range, and 4.8 percent for those aged 50 and over.

Men are also more likely to have signed up to Pôle emploi, with a 6.1 percent increase on last year, compared to a 3.8 percent increase among women.

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