(RTTNews) - Thursday, the Statistics Sweden announced that the jobless rate stood at 8.6% in December, up from 8% in the previous month. Economists' expected the rate to be 8.3%. The jobless rate for men was 8.9% in December, while jobless rate for women was 8.1%.

The number of unemployed totaled 417,000 persons in December, which is an increase of 108,000 compared to the previous year.