The Swedish unemployment rate decreased for the first time in four months in March, figures from Statistics Sweden showed on Wednesday.
The unadjusted jobless rate dropped to 7.7 percent in March from an eight-month high of 8.2 percent in the previous month.
In the same month last year, the unemployment rate was also 8.2 percent.
The number of unemployed persons decreased to 434,000 in March from 459,000 in February.
Young people between the ages of 15 and 24 accounted for 161,000 unemployed, or 24.5 percent of the workforce, the agency said.
At the same time, the employment rate rose to 69.3 percent from 68.2 percent, representing 5.236 million employed people.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, the jobless rate was 7.2 percent in March, down from 7.6 percent in the prior month.
