Unemployment among native Swedes fell to 3.9 percent in August – the lowest level since August 2008 before the financial crisis, according to statistics by national job agency Arbetsförmedlingen.
“We note that unemployment among native-born Swedes is now at record-low levels, especially among those who have an upper secondary education and are over 25 years old. The available labour force is almost completely exhausted here,” said Arbetsförmedlingen analyst Annika Sundén.
But unemployment among foreign-born people, who make up the bulk of The Local's readers, is moving in the opposite direction.
A total of 22 percent of people born outside of Sweden were registered as unemployed at the end of August.
According to Arbetsförmedlingen one reason for this is that many of Sweden's recent wave of newcomers have now been granted their residence permits and are registered with Arbetsförmedlingen's programme to get them established on the job market.
In total, 357,525 people, or 7.4 percent, are currently registered as unemployed, the same percentage as last year.