Number of unemployed in Sweden much higher than expected.

• Swedes getting more positive to immigrants
• Swedish centre-right parties approval growing

Sweden's unemployment rate jumped to 9.8 percent of the workforce in April from 9.1 percent a month earlier, the national statistics agency said Tuesday, announcing a much higher rise than expected.

Some 483,000 people were actively seeking employment in April, which was around 80,000 more than the same month a year ago and 35,000 more than in March, Statistics Sweden said in a statement.

Economists and analysts had expected the Scandinavian country to see its jobless rate decline slightly to 9.0 percent last month, according to a poll by Dow Jones Newswires.

Corrected to account for seasonal factors, Sweden's unemployment rate in April stood at 9.3 percent, far higher than the 8.7 percent seen in March.

A total of 4.5 million people held jobs in Sweden last month, Statistics Sweden said.

According to the latest estimates from the Finance Ministry, published in March, Sweden's jobless rate is expected to stabilise around 9.4 percent this year before gradually sinking to 6.6 percent by 2014, with the rising employment fueled by economic growth.

The country, which was hard-hit by the global financial crisis but which emerged from recession in the second quarter last year, now forecasts its gross domestic product (GDP) will grow 2.6 percent this year and between 3.0 and 3.5 percent between 2011 and 2014.