A total of 148,000 people in the country had been unemployed for at least a full year by the end of October 2019, according to the latest figures from the Swedish Public Employment Service (Arbetsförmedlingen).
That was an increase of 2,000 people compared to the same time last year, the first time that long-term unemployment had risen since summer 2018.
And the total number of people without a job had risen by 17,000 in a year, reaching almost 358,000. That equates to an unemployment rate of 7.1 percent, up from 6.9 percent at the same time 12 months ago.
For the fourth month in a row, the rate of increase itself rose compared to the same months in 2018, meaning that unemployment is growing at an ever faster rate.
“In order to reduce long-term unemployment, a combination of different efforts are needed. It's partly a question of adult education, but it's also about different forms of subsidized employment,” said Swedish Public Employment Service analyst Annika Sundén.
The groups most likely to be affected by unemployment are those born outside Europe, those without high school education, and people aged over 55, according to the same figures.
Perhaps a better way of phrasing “Sweden has a surplus of skilled jobs” would be to say “Sweden has imported a surplus of uneducated low skill labour”
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