The Swedish Public Employment Service showed that the jobless rate stood at 7.1 percent in October, slightly below expectations of 7.2 percent. PES unemployment has been rising since January 2019 from the low-point of 6.7 percent. In October, long-term unemployment also began rising – for the first time in 16 months.
The Labor Force Survey data will be released on Thursday. The revision will span July 2018-September 2019. According to Statistics Sweden, the revisions would be larger for the latest months, mainly since June 2019. The dramatic rise in unemployment following the summer was exaggerated, and they write that “unemployment was showing a modest increase during this period”.
“Today’s PES unemployment confirms that Swedish unemployment is rising, but likely at a pace that is not enough to put a halt to the Riksbank’s plan to hike rates in December”, said Nordea Bank.
