The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU state as of February 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, Slovenia had the greatest improvement in its rate from the previous month.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the lowest unemployment rate, the Czech Republic, and the state with the highest, Greece, shrank from 16.2 percentage points last month to 16.1 percentage points. Last year the difference was 18.5 percentage points. The Czech Republic and Greece were the states with the lowest and highest rates respectively, both last month and last year.
- Greece has 9.47 times the unemployment rate that the Czech Republic does, up from 8.71 times last month and up from 9.04 times last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 5.45 (up from 5.40 the previous month but down from 5.85 last year) and the mean 6.10 (down from 6.21 the previous month and down from 6.91 last year).
- Four states did not see a change in their unemployment rate from the previous month, 19 saw an improvement, and five states saw their rate increase.
- Two states did not see a change in their unemployment rate from last year, 25 saw an improvement, and one state saw its rate increase.
Caveats
- Data is from February 2019 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from January 2019 and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from December 2018.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
Details
Slovenia saw the largest improvement in its unemployment rate from the previous month with a change of 0.8 percentage points. Luxembourg had the largest increase in its unemployment rate at 0.4 percentage points. Greece saw the greatest improvement from last year dropping its rate 2.8 percentage points while Sweden had the worst performance from last year rising its rate 0.3 percentage points.
Eight EU states have an unemployment rate below four percent (same as last month, up from four last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages. Sixteen have a rate between four and eight percent (same as last month, down from 18 last year), and four have a rate above eight percent (same as last month, down from six last year).
Data
| State | Previous Rate | Latest Rate | Change (Percentage Points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 4.8 | 5 | 0.2 |
| Belgium | 5.6 | 5.7 | 0.1 |
| Bulgaria | 4.8 | 4.7 | -0.1 |
| Croatia | 7.6 | 7.5 | -0.1 |
| Cyprus | 7.4 | 7.1 | -0.3 |
| Czech Republic | 2.1 | 1.9 | -0.2 |
| Denmark | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| Estonia | 4.2 | 4.2 | 0 |
| Finland | 6.7 | 6.7 | 0 |
| France | 8.8 | 8.8 | 0 |
| Germany | 3.2 | 3.1 | -0.1 |
| Greece | 18.3 | 18 | -0.3 |
| Hungary | 3.6 | 3.5 | -0.1 |
| Ireland | 5.7 | 5.6 | -0.1 |
| Italy | 10.5 | 10.7 | 0.2 |
| Latvia | 7.3 | 7.2 | -0.1 |
| Lithuania | 6.2 | 6.1 | -0.1 |
| Luxembourg | 4.9 | 5.3 | 0.4 |
| Malta | 3.8 | 3.5 | -0.3 |
| Netherlands | 3.6 | 3.4 | -0.2 |
| Poland | 3.7 | 3.5 | -0.2 |
| Portugal | 6.7 | 6.3 | -0.4 |
| Romania | 3.9 | 3.8 | -0.1 |
| Slovakia | 6.2 | 5.8 | -0.4 |
| Slovenia | 5.2 | 4.4 | -0.8 |
| Spain | 14.1 | 13.9 | -0.2 |
| Sweden | 6 | 6.2 | 0.2 |
| United Kingdom | 3.9 | 3.8 | -0.1 |
Sources
Eurostat. 2019. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed April 9, 2019. http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_-64E038A_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-055624S_ADJ,SA;DS-055624UNIT,PC_ACT;DS-055624SEX,T;DS-055624AGE,TOTAL;DS-055624INDICATORS,OBS_FLAG;&rankName1=UNIT_1_2_-1_2&rankName2=AGE_1_2_-1_2&rankName3=INDICATORS_1_2_-1_2&rankName4=SEX_1_2_-1_2&rankName5=S-ADJ_1_2_-1_2&rankName6=TIME_1_0_0_0&rankName7=GEO_1_2_0_1&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.