The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU state as of August 2020 (unless otherwise noted - see caveats below), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior. Czechia is the only state with an unemployment rate below three percent.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the lowest unemployment rate, Czechia, and the state with the highest, Greece, is 15.60 percentage points (up from 14.70 last month and up from 15.20 last year). Czechia had the lowest rate last month and last year. Greece had the highest rate last month and last year.
- Greece has 6.78 times the unemployment rate that Czechia does. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was up from 6.65 last month and down from 9.00 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.50 (same as 6.50 the previous month and up from 5.10 last year) and the mean 7.05 (up from 7.00 the previous month and up from 5.94 last year).
- Two states saw no change in the unemployment rate from the previous month, 13 saw an improvement, and 13 states saw the rate increase.
- One state saw no change in the unemployment rate from last year, three saw an improvement, and 24 states saw the rate increase.
Caveats
- Data is from August 2020 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from July 2020 and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from June 2020 (previous month and year rates also reflect the respective one and two month delay).
- Data may conflict with previous month's report as statistical agencies make updates to the rates over the course of the month.
- All figures are rounded to the nearest hundredth.
Details
In absolute terms, Luxembourg had the best performance over the previous month dropping 0.4 percentage points. Greece had the worst performance rising 1.0 percentage points. Year over year, France had the best performance with a 1.0 percentage point drop while Estonia had the worst performance with a 3.5 percentage point rise in the unemployment rate.
In relative terms, Hungary had the best performance over the previous month with a 6.12% drop in its rate while Cyprus had the worst performance with a 7.25% rise in its rate. Year over year, France had the best performance with a 11.76% drop in its rate while Estonia had the worst performance with a 81.40% rise in its rate.
Three EU states have an unemployment rate below four percent (same as three last month, down from nine last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages. Sixteen have a rate between four and eight percent (down from 18 last month, up from 15 last year), and nine have a rate above eight percent (up from seven last month, up from four last year).
Luxembourg (from 18th to 15th) bested three states over the course of the month. On the flip side, Lithuania (from 23rd to 25th) was bested by two states. Year-over-year, France (from 25th to 18th) surpassed seven states. Conversely, Estonia (from 10th to 19th) was bested by nine states.
Data
| State | Last Year | Previous Rate | Latest Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 4.5 | 5.2 | 5 |
| Belgium | 5.2 | 5 | 5.1 |
| Bulgaria | 3.9 | 6.1 | 6.2 |
| Croatia | 6.5 | 8.4 | 8.3 |
| Cyprus | 6.8 | 6.9 | 7.4 |
| Czechia | 1.9 | 2.6 | 2.7 |
| Denmark | 4.9 | 6.3 | 6.1 |
| Estonia | 4.3 | 8 | 7.8 |
| Finland | 6.9 | 8 | 8.1 |
| France | 8.5 | 7.1 | 7.5 |
| Germany | 3 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| Greece | 17.1 | 17.3 | 18.3 |
| Hungary | 3.4 | 4.9 | 4.6 |
| Ireland | 5 | 5.2 | 5.2 |
| Italy | 9.5 | 9.8 | 9.7 |
| Latvia | 6.2 | 9 | 8.8 |
| Lithuania | 6.6 | 9 | 9.6 |
| Luxembourg | 5.7 | 7.2 | 6.8 |
| Malta | 3.6 | 4.2 | 4.1 |
| Netherlands | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4.6 |
| Poland | 3.1 | 3.2 | 3.1 |
| Portugal | 6.4 | 7.9 | 8.1 |
| Romania | 3.8 | 5.4 | 5.3 |
| Slovakia | 5.8 | 6.7 | 6.8 |
| Slovenia | 4.9 | 4.8 | 4.7 |
| Spain | 14.3 | 15.9 | 16.2 |
| Sweden | 7.2 | 9.2 | 9.1 |
| United Kingdom | 3.8 | 3.7 | 3.9 |
Sources
Eurostat. 2020. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed October 7, 2020. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_-2815C862_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.