Sweden's Jobless Rate Climbs To 8.2%, Highest In 8 Months

(RTTNews) - The Swedish unemployment rate increased further in February to the highest level in eight months, figures from Statistics Sweden showed on Friday.

The unadjusted jobless rate rose to 8.2 percent in February from 7.6 percent in the previous month.

In the same month last year, the unemployment rate was 7.9 percent.

The number of unemployed persons increased to 459,000 in February from 422,000 in January.

Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 accounted for 170,000 unemployed, or 26.4 percent of the workforce, the agency said.

At the same time, the employment rate rose marginally to 68.2 percent from 68.1 percent, representing 5.17 million employed people.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, the jobless rate was 7.6 percent in February, up from 7.3 percent in the prior month.