In 2023, the unemployment rate for 15-74 years old in the EU fell to 6.1% of the labour force, the lowest level since 2014.
The long-term unemployment rate, as a percentage of the labour force, was 2.1% in 2023, marking a historic low since the beginning of the time series in 2009.
Among EU countries, Greece stood out with the highest long-term unemployment rate, reaching 6.2%, followed by Spain (4.3%) and Italy (4.2%). At the other end of the scale, Denmark and the Netherlands were both at 0.5%, ahead of Czechia, Malta and Poland (all at 0.8%).
Source dataset: une_ltu_a
Regarding young people aged 15 to 29 years, the unemployment ratio was 6.3% of the total population of the same age. Looking at the long-term trend, this share was at the lowest level in the entire available time series.
Still, the situation among EU countries varied a lot. Sweden registered the highest share of youth unemployment at 10.9%, followed by Spain (10.8%) and Greece (9.8%) while the lowest rates were in Czechia (2.4%), Bulgaria (3.2%) and Germany (3.3%).
Source: Eurostat, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/product?code=ddn-20241108-1
