Using aggregated data on jobseekers registered with the Swedish Public Employment Service, this report documents how the inflow, outflow, and number of jobseekers evolved for various demographic groups during the first wave of the pandemic.

The report argues that contrary to what many first assumed, the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be characterised as a 'leveller'. The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a decline in economic activity unprecedented since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and this study finds that already disadvantaged groups - such as younger people and, to some extent, those foreign born - were more adversely affected. The study does not find, however, that women in Sweden were disproportionally affected.