Foreign-born population in Sweden 2013-2023, by employment status

The employment rate among Sweden's foreign-born population increased slowly from 2011 to 2019, but fell in 2020 after the outbreak of COVID-19, reaching 60.6 percent in 2021. Following the peak of the pandemic, this increased to 67.1 percent in 2023.

 Simultaneously, the unemployment rate increased, nearly reaching 20 percent in 2021 after being around 15 percent in the years before the pandemic. It then fell to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, and reached 15.1 by 2023. By comparison, the overall employment rate in Sweden was 69.4 percent in 2023, making it five percentage points higher than among the foreign-born population.