Sweden's unemployment rate continued to surge towards double figures in January, according to official data.

Statistics Sweden announced that the Scandinavian country's national jobless rate rose to 9.4 per cent of the labor market last month, which is equivalent to 458,000 individuals and an increase of 2.1 per cent year-on-year.

This figure is 0.1 per cent more than analysts had predicted before the release of data and a 0.8 per cent increase on December's rate.

However, the agency suggested that a growth in unemployment has slowed during the past couple of months thanks to a rise in the number of employed men.

In total, 4,399,000 Swedish labor market members had jobs in January, which is 80,000 less than recorded in the same period during 2008.

Last month, the Swedish government predicted in its economic forecast for the year that unemployment would peak in the economy at 9.5 per cent, which is 1.2 per cent less than it had previously suggested.