Swedish unemployment benefit

Unemployment benefit in Sweden — a-kassa — is a share of what you earned before, calculated on at most 34,000 SEK a month. The maximum is 27,200 SEK a month before tax. Enter your income below and we will work out both the benefit and what is left once tax is deducted.

On 1 October 2025 the whole Swedish unemployment insurance system was replaced. Entitlement is no longer based on how much you worked but on what you earned, and how long you have been a member of an a-kassa decides the level. This page describes the new rules.

Your gross monthly income before you became unemployed

SEK / month

5,000 SEK80,000 SEK

The benefit is calculated on at most 34,000 SEK a month. Income above the ceiling does not increase it.

How long have you been a member of an a-kassa?

Membership time sets the level, and cannot be acquired retroactively.

How many of the last twelve months did you earn at least 11,000 SEK?

Months below that threshold do not count. The number of them sets how long the benefit is paid — and the benefit is calculated on an average over all twelve months.

Municipality

Stockholm charges 30.55% in municipal and regional tax.

Member of the Church of SwedenStockholm charges 0.89% as the church fee.

Benefit per month, before tax

27,200SEK month

1,236 SEK a day, for up to 300 benefit days.

After tax: 19,699 SEK

How the benefit steps down

Benefit per step over the benefit period
Period	Level	Per day	Per month	After tax
Day 1–100	80%	1,236 SEK	27,200 SEK	19,699 SEK
Day 101–200	70%	1,082 SEK	23,800 SEK	17,445 SEK
Day 201–300	65%	1,005 SEK	22,100 SEK	16,309 SEK

The whole period: 332,273 SEK; All benefit days added up, before tax, assuming full unemployment throughout.

Compared with keeping the job

38,300 SEK in salary leaves 31,044 SEK after tax.

The gap is wider than it looks: the benefit is lower than the salary, and it is taxed harder too, because the earned-income tax credit is only given on income from work.

Unemployment benefit, table

Benefit per month before tax at 80%, the level for someone who has been a member for at least twelve months and had an income above the monthly threshold in eleven or twelve of the reference months — the full period of 300 days. Income above 34,000 SEK does not increase the benefit. Net pay is calculated for an average municipality.

Monthly income before unemployment and the resulting benefit
Income before tax	Daily benefit	Day 1–100	Day 101–200	Day 201–300	After tax
15,000 SEK	545 SEK	12,000 SEK	10,500 SEK	9,750 SEK	9,182 SEK
20,000 SEK	727 SEK	16,000 SEK	14,000 SEK	13,000 SEK	11,961 SEK
25,000 SEK	909 SEK	20,000 SEK	17,500 SEK	16,250 SEK	14,556 SEK
30,000 SEK	1,091 SEK	24,000 SEK	21,000 SEK	19,500 SEK	17,144 SEK
35,000 SEK	1,236 SEK	27,200 SEK	23,800 SEK	22,100 SEK	19,195 SEK
40,000 SEK	1,236 SEK	27,200 SEK	23,800 SEK	22,100 SEK	19,195 SEK

The "after tax" column is the first hundred days of benefit in an average municipality, without the church fee and for someone under 66.

The level depends on membership time

How long you have been a member of an a-kassa decides what share of your income you get. It is membership time that counts, not time worked — and it cannot be acquired retroactively.

Member of an a-kassa	Benefit level
12 months or more	80%
6–11 months	60%
Up to 5 months	50%

How long the benefit is paid

The number of benefit days depends on how many of the last twelve months brought in at least 11,000 SEK. Benefit is paid for at most five days a week.

Months with income	Benefit days
11 or more	300 days
8–10	200 days
4–7	100 days

There is also an alternative rule: 4 consecutive months with at least 11,000 SEK gives a shorter period of 66 days. It is calculated on a fixed income of 10,000 SEK a month, whatever you actually earned.

How this is calculated

The benefit is a share of your previous income up to a ceiling, and the share falls the longer the unemployment lasts. Here is how it is worked out.

Your qualifying income is established: all income over the reference period, the twelve months preceding the unemployment, divided by twelve. The division is always by twelve, even if some of those months had no income — six months at 30,000 kronor count as 15,000.
That income is compared with the ceiling. If it is higher, the benefit is still calculated on the ceiling, so earning more than that does not increase the benefit.
The benefit level is set by how long you have been a member of an a-kassa: 80%, 60% or 50%.
The daily benefit is the income times the level, divided by 22 — the number of benefit days a month is counted as — and rounded to whole kronor.
After 100 benefit days the level drops by 10 percentage points, and by a further 5 percentage points every hundred days after that. From 80% that gives 80, then 70, then 65.
The benefit is taxable. Tax is calculated as on other earned income, but without the earned-income tax credit — that is only given on income from work.

The calculator shows what the rules give for full unemployment. Your own a-kassa makes the actual assessment and may arrive at something else: income is taken from employer tax returns, work and other benefits during the month reduce the amount, and a benefit period starts with waiting days. This is an estimate, not a decision.

Unemployment benefit after tax

The benefit is taxed like a salary, with one exception that shows: the earned-income tax credit (jobbskatteavdrag) is only given on income from work, and unemployment benefit is not income from work. The same gross amount therefore leaves several thousand kronor less per month when it comes from the a-kassa than when it comes from an employer.

The a-kassa withholds tax when the benefit is paid out. The figure here is the final tax for a full year on this benefit, divided by twelve, calculated the same way as the salary calculator.

Work out salary after tax

The amounts in the insurance

Constants in the Swedish unemployment insurance
Highest qualifying income	34,000 SEK/month
Highest benefit, before tax	27,200 SEK/month
Benefit days per month	22
Waiting days	2
Longest benefit period	300 days
Income condition	120,000 SEK / 11,000 SEK × 4
Fixed income under the alternative rule	10,000 SEK/month
Minimum age	20

The amounts were last checked on 12 September 2026 against the act itself, IAF and the funds' own published figures.

Jobs that pay around this

Jobs whose median salary is close to the income you entered.

Audiologist and speech therapist 38,300 SEK
Librarian 38,300 SEK
Steel structure erectors and heavy plate workers 38,300 SEK
Other food processors 38,300 SEK
Dietitian 38,200 SEK
Event and travel planners 38,400 SEK

All jobs A–Z

Frequently asked questions

How much does Swedish unemployment benefit pay?

A share of your previous income: 80% if you have been a member of an a-kassa for at least twelve months, 60% at six to eleven months and 50% below that. The share is calculated on your average income over the last twelve months, capped at 34,000 SEK a month, which gives a maximum of 27,200 SEK a month before tax — roughly 19,195 SEK after tax in an average municipality. On an income of 38,300 SEK a month the benefit is 27,200 SEK before tax and 19,195 SEK after.

What changed on 1 October 2025?

Almost everything. Entitlement used to be based on how much you had worked; since 1 October 2025 it is based on what you earned. Membership time in an a-kassa sets the level, the number of months with income sets how long the benefit is paid, and you apply month by month. Many pages online still describe the old hours-based condition — that only applies to people whose decision predates that date.

Do you have to join a union to get a-kassa?

No. The a-kassa and the trade union are two separate things, with two memberships and two fees. You can belong to an a-kassa without belonging to a union, and the other way round. It is membership of the a-kassa — not the union — that sets the benefit level. Someone who belongs to neither but meets the income condition still gets the lowest level, 50%.

How long can you receive unemployment benefit?

At most 300 benefit days, which for full unemployment is a little under fourteen months. How many days you get depends on how many of the twelve reference months brought in an income above the monthly threshold: the more months, the longer the period. A benefit period starts with 2 waiting days without payment.

Why does the benefit fall over time?

That is the point of the reform. After 100 benefit days the level drops by 10 percentage points, then by 5 percentage points every hundred days. Someone starting at 80% gets 70% from day 101 and 65% from day 201. The step-down applies from every level, so someone starting at 60% moves to 50% and then 45%.

Is unemployment benefit taxed in Sweden?

Yes. The benefit is taxable earned income and the a-kassa withholds tax when it pays out. But the earned-income tax credit is only given on income from work, and unemployment benefit does not count as income from work. Tax is therefore higher than on a salary of the same size — which is why 27,200 SEK in benefit leaves 19,195 SEK, while the same amount as salary would leave more.

Does it matter which a-kassa you join?

Not for the benefit. The rules, the ceiling and the levels are the same in every fund — they are set in law. What differs is the membership fee and which occupational field the fund serves. Membership time does matter, and it normally carries over if you switch funds without a break.

Unions, collective agreements and a-kassa – what is the difference?