Swedish jobless rate climbs amid brewing political storm
Sweden’s unemployment rate rose more than expected in April as the effects of the Covid-19 crisis continued to wreak havoc across the Nordic region’s biggest economy. The seasonally-adjusted jobless measure increased to 7.9% from 6.7% a month earlier, Statistics Sweden reported. Economists were expecting a rate of 7.8%, according to the median of seven estimates from a Bloomberg survey. The unadjusted rate rose to 8.2% amid a sharp drop in the number of hours worked, mainly within the hotel and restaurant industry. The worsening jobless data comes at a difficult time for the Social Democrat-led government. Next week the administration is expected make public the results of an inquiry into labor market reform, which was set up at the behest of its budget allies after the general election in 2018. |