Sweden's official unemployment rate rose to 9.4 percent in January from 7.3 percent a year earlier, Statistics Sweden (SCB) announced on Thursday.
Due to a sharp reduction of employed women, the number of the country's unemployed reached 458,000 in January, a growth of 108,000 year-on-year, the Swedish government agency said in a statement.
In January, 4,399,000 Swedes were employed, 80,000 less than one year ago, it said.
However, the growth of unemployment rate has slowed during past several months because the number of employed men has grown slightly, the agency added./.