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Unemployment down in Denmark but analysts predict more without work

Ritzau/The Local
Ritzau/The Local - [email protected]
Unemployment down in Denmark but analysts predict more without work
The job centre in Frederiksberg. Unemployment numbers are currently holding but analysts say they will rise in 2023. Photo: Mathias Eis/Ritzau Scanpix

The number of people without work in Denmark fell slightly in October, with the total of 75,200 lower than September’s figure by 200.

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The data from Statistics Denmark therefore show a marginal decrease, which does not translate to a percentage drop in employment according to the agency.

That means 2.6 percent of Denmark’s workforce is still currently unemployed.

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“The small drop in October is due to 300 fewer non-activated [not in return-to-work programmes, ed.] and 100 more activated jobseekers,” Statistics Denmark said.

Unemployment appears to still be trending downwards, which analyst Brian Friis Helmer of Arebejdernes Landsbank said was surprising.

“We have an economy that actually looks good but we have sky-high inflation and dreary economic forecasts. So it’s surprising that both unemployment and employment still seem to be withstanding this headwind,” he said.

But it is a matter of time before unemployment begins to creep upwards, according to senior economist Tore Stramer of the Danish Chamber of Commerce (Dansk Erhverv).

“The more forward-looking key metrics for the labour market have unfortunately begun to wobble considerably in recent months,” Stramer said.

“The number of available job notices has fallen by around 22 percent since February and the number of redundancy notices has meanwhile increased to the highest level since the coronavirus crisis in 2020,” he said in a written comment to news wire Ritzau.

The economist said he expects unemployment to go up by between 25,000 and 50,000 by the end of 2023.

An additional 20,000 people could lose their jobs in 2024, he said.

The construction and hospitality sectors could be amongst the most vulnerable,” he said.

Another analyst, Sydbank senior economist Søren Kristensen, also told Ritzau he believes unemployment will go up but said a slight cooling down of the labour market might be beneficial. Denmark is currently experiencing a labour shortage in several sectors.

“But we are concerned this might be a case of more than just a cooling-off,” he said.

“We expect a fall in employment figures of more than 60,000 persons during the course of 2023. They won’t all show up as being unemployed persons but we could easily end up in a situation where interest and inflation combine to catapult the number of unemployed people to over 100,000,” he said.

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