How an Email Snafu Led to 61,000 People Storming an Employment Office

A different kind of syndrome has recently thrown Stockholm residents into a tizzy: unemployment.

When a public employment office mistakenly sent a recruitment email to every registered job seeker in the city -- some 61,000 people -- hopeful crowds turned up in droves.

But the email was actually only intended for about 1,000 job seekers, reports Reuters, and so local police had to be called to quell angry mobs.

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Given Sweden’s current unemployment rate of 8.6 percent, thousands of people arrived in an alley where the office is located in downtown Stockholm. With an ominous energy buzzing, staff sounded the alarm, but no arrests were ultimately made.

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Clas Olsson, acting director of the employment office, told a local newspaper that he was unsure whether the email snafu had been a human or technical error.

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