According to Statistics Sweden, the country's unemployment rate experienced an increase in December, following a decrease over the past two months.
The jobless rate, unadjusted, rose to 7.7 percent in December, up from 7.1 percent in November. When compared to the same month the previous year, the unemployment rate was lower - at 6.9 percent.
In December, the count of unemployed individuals increased to 433,000, up from 400,000 in November. The statistics highlighted that amongst the unemployed, young people aged 15 to 24 constituted the majority at 135,000, which is 22.6 percent of the workforce.
The data further indicated a decline in the employment rate - to 68.3 percent from 69.2 percent, equating a total of 5.188 million employed individuals.
On a seasonally adjusted scale, the unemployment rate saw an increase from 7.9 percent to 8.2 percent.
