STOCKHOLM (AP) -- Sweden's unemployment rate rose to 8.3 percent in March, up from 8 percent February, as the Nordic country continues to shed manufacturing and construction jobs amid the global economic downturn.
Compared with the same month a year earlier, the jobless rate was up two percentage points. Statistics Sweden said nearly 100,000 jobs -- mainly in the manufacturing and construction sectors -- had been lost since March 2008.
Major Swedish companies, such as appliance manufacturer Electrolux AB and truck makers AB Volvo and Scania AB, have announced thousands of layoffs because of declining demand in the wake of the financial crisis.