Swedish Unemployment declined faster than estimate

The number of people in work reached a record in Sweden as the unemployment rate dropped last month.

According to a survey by SME Direkt, economists had expected a 6.1 percent reading following the 6.3 percent figure from March, although the true figure was 6 percent.

The number of people employed in the country increased 4.58 million from 4.53 million a month earlier, whilst the number of hours worked across the labour force increased by 2.8 percent to 157 million hours a week.

The number of people registered as unemployed stood at 293,000 in April, compared to 311,000 from last year.

Reasons for this have been placed at the role of Sweden’s large multinational corporations like Scania, Ericsson and Volvo and the manner in which they are retaining staff by not only attracting employees but also keeping them happy.

As employee care is very high within the country, it is reported that it is not uncommon for some companies to bring a masseur to the office to help reduce work related stress, whilst free gym memberships or free breakfasts and fruit in the office are also hygiene factors used to retain staff moral and motivation.

Story link: Swedish Unemployment declined faster than estimate