05:40 AM EDT, 05/22/2024 (MT Newswires) -- The Swedish krona fell against the US dollar and most other major currencies during early European trade on Wednesday after overlooking an improvement in local employment figures for the month of April.

USD/SEK was quoted 0.22% higher at 10.71, making the krona the second-worst performing G10 currency behind only the Norwegian krone, amid broad weakness for equity markets in Europe and Asia.

The krona overlooked Statistics Sweden data showing employment increasing to 5.23 million in April, from 5.19 million in March, which pushed the unemployment rate down to 8.9% from 9.2% previously. There were no consensus estimates available.

April's fall in the unemployment rate partially reverses the increase from 8.5% that was seen in March but is unlikely to alter the Riksbank's plan to cut interest rates twice more before the year is out.

"The labour force continues to increase and is the main driver of the higher unemployment rate both in April and in March," said Swedbank economist Emma Paulsson.