STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Sweden's unemployment rate rose to 8 percent in February from 7.3 percent the month before as companies hit by the economic crisis continued to shed jobs, the national statistics agency said Thursday.
Sweden's unemployment has risen nearly two percentage points in the past year with about 76,000 jobs being slashed, mostly in manufacturing and construction, Statistics Sweden said.
Nordea Economist Torbjorn Isaksson said the February numbers "clearly exceeded" estimates. "This is a trend we think will continue," he said.
