The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU state as of January 2019 (unless otherwise noted) and the change from the previous month. The Czech Republic continues to be the only state with an unemployment rate below three percent. However, Cyprus had the greatest improvement in its rate from December.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the lowest unemployment rate, the Czech Republic, and the state with the highest, Greece, is 16.2 percentage points.
- Greece has 8.71 times the unemployment rate that the Czech Republic does.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 5.40 (up from 5.25 the previous month) and the mean 6.21 (down from 6.30 the previous month).
- Six states did not see a change in their unemployment rate, 14 saw an improvement, and eight states saw their rate increase over the previous month.
- Two states did not see a change in their unemployment rate from last year, while the remaining 26 saw an improvement over the prior year's rate.
Caveats
- Data is from January 2019 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from December 2018 and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from November 2018.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
Details
Cyprus saw the largest improvement in its unemployment rate from the previous month with a change of 1.4 percentage points. Ireland had the largest increase in its unemployment rate at 0.4 percentage points.
Eight EU states have an unemployment rate below four percent (as opposed to seven the previous month) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages. Sixteen have a rate between four and eight percent (last month had 16 as well), and four have a rate above eight percent (down one from last month's five).
Data
| State | Previous Rate | Latest Rate | Change (Percentage Points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 4.7 | 4.8 | 0.1 |
| Belgium | 5.5 | 5.6 | 0.1 |
| Bulgaria | 5.2 | 4.8 | -0.4 |
| Croatia | 7.7 | 7.6 | -0.1 |
| Cyprus | 8.8 | 7.4 | -1.4 |
| Czech Republic | 2.1 | 2.1 | 0.0 |
| Denmark | 5.1 | 5.0 | -0.1 |
| Estonia | 4.6 | 4.2 | -0.4 |
| Finland | 6.8 | 6.7 | -0.1 |
| France | 9.1 | 8.8 | -0.3 |
| Germany | 3.3 | 3.2 | -0.1 |
| Greece | 18.6 | 18.3 | -0.3 |
| Hungary | 3.7 | 3.6 | -0.1 |
| Ireland | 5.3 | 5.7 | 0.4 |
| Italy | 10.3 | 10.5 | 0.2 |
| Latvia | 7.1 | 7.3 | 0.2 |
| Lithuania | 6.3 | 6.2 | -0.1 |
| Luxembourg | 4.9 | 4.9 | 0.0 |
| Malta | 3.8 | 3.8 | 0.0 |
| Netherlands | 3.6 | 3.6 | 0.0 |
| Poland | 3.5 | 3.7 | 0.2 |
| Portugal | 6.7 | 6.7 | 0.0 |
| Romania | 3.8 | 3.9 | 0.1 |
| Slovakia | 6.1 | 6.2 | 0.1 |
| Slovenia | 5.2 | 5.2 | 0.0 |
| Spain | 14.3 | 14.1 | -0.2 |
| Sweden | 6.4 | 6.0 | -0.4 |
| United Kingdom | 4.0 | 3.9 | -0.1 |
Sources
Eurostat. 2019. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed March 21, 2019. http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_6C6753DD_UID_-3F171EB0&layout=TIME,C,X,0;GEO,L,Y,0;S_ADJ,L,Z,0;AGE,L,Z,1;UNIT,L,Z,2;SEX,L,Z,3;INDICATORS,C,Z,4;&zSelection=DS-055624SEX,T;DS-055624UNIT,PC_ACT;DS-055624S_ADJ,SA;DS-055624AGE,TOTAL;DS-055624INDICATORS,OBS_FLAG;&rankName1=TIME_1_0_0_0&rankName2=UNIT_1_2_-1_2&rankName3=GEO_1_2_0_1&rankName4=AGE_1_2_-1_2&rankName5=INDICATORS_1_2_-1_2&rankName6=SEX_1_2_-1_2&rankName7=S-ADJ_1_2_-1_2&sortC=ASC_-1_FIRST&rStp=&cStp=&rDCh=&cDCh=&rDM=true&cDM=true&footnes=false&empty=false&wai=false&time_mode=NONE&time_most_recent=false&lang=EN&cfo=%23%23%23%2C%23%23%23.%23%23%23.