The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU state as of January 2021 (unless otherwise noted - see caveats below), the change from the previous month, and the rate one year prior. There are no states with an unemployment rate below three percent.
Findings
- The difference between the state with the lowest unemployment rate, Poland, and the state with the highest, Greece, is 13.10 percentage points (down from 13.30 last month and down from 14.60 last year). Czechia had the lowest rate last month and last year. Greece had the highest rate last month and last year.
- Greece has 5.23 times the unemployment rate that Poland does. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was down from 5.29 last month and down from 8.30 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.45 (up from 6.35 the previous month and up from 5.10 last year) and the mean 6.91 (same as 6.91 the previous month and up from 5.85 last year).
- Of the 28 states, four saw no change in the unemployment rate from the previous month, ten saw an improvement, and 14 saw the rate increase.
- Of the 28 states, zero saw no change in the unemployment rate from last year, three saw an improvement, and 25 saw the rate increase.
Caveats
- Data is from January 2021 except for Estonia, Finland, Hungary, and Italy which are from December 2020 and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from November 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, Estonia had the best performance over the previous month dropping 0.9 percentage points. Finland had the worst performance rising 0.6 percentage points. Year over year, Italy had the best performance with a 0.6 percentage point drop while Lithuania had the worst performance with a 3.4 percentage point rise in the unemployment rate.
In relative terms, Estonia had the best performance over the previous month with a 11.54% drop in the rate while Romania and Finland had the worst performance with a 7.69% rise in the rate. Year over year, Italy had the best performance with a 6.25% drop in the rate while Czechia had the worst performance with a 60.00% rise in the rate.
Three EU states have an unemployment rate below four percent (same as three last month, down from eight last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages. Eighteen have a rate between four and eight percent (down from 19 last month, up from 16 last year), and seven have a rate above eight percent (up from six last month, up from four last year).
Cyprus (from 18th to 15th) and Estonia (from 20th to 17th) rose three spots over the course of the month. On the flip side, Portugal (from 16th to 19th) fell three spots. Year-over-year, Cyprus (from 20th to 15th) rose five spots. Conversely, Lithuania (from 19th to 26th) fell seven spots.
Data
| State | Last Year | Previous Rate | Latest Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 4.4 | 5.8 | 5.7 |
| Belgium | 5.1 | 5.8 | 5.6 |
| Bulgaria | 4.2 | 5.3 | 5.5 |
| Croatia | 6 | 7.6 | 7.1 |
| Cyprus | 6.4 | 7.3 | 6.8 |
| Czechia | 2 | 3.1 | 3.2 |
| Denmark | 5 | 6 | 6.1 |
| Estonia | 4.4 | 7.8 | 6.9 |
| Finland | 6.6 | 7.8 | 8.4 |
| France | 8.1 | 7.8 | 7.9 |
| Germany | 3.4 | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| Greece | 16.6 | 16.4 | 16.2 |
| Hungary | 2.9 | 4 | 4.1 |
| Ireland | 5.1 | 5.8 | 5.8 |
| Italy | 9.6 | 8.8 | 9 |
| Latvia | 7.2 | 8.2 | 8.5 |
| Lithuania | 6.2 | 9.2 | 9.6 |
| Luxembourg | 5.7 | 6.7 | 6.8 |
| Malta | 3.7 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| Netherlands | 3 | 3.9 | 3.6 |
| Poland | 3 | 3.2 | 3.1 |
| Portugal | 6.8 | 6.8 | 7.2 |
| Romania | 3.6 | 5.2 | 5.6 |
| Slovakia | 6 | 7 | 7.2 |
| Slovenia | 4.1 | 4.7 | 4.7 |
| Spain | 13.8 | 16.2 | 16 |
| Sweden | 7.2 | 8.8 | 8.9 |
| United Kingdom | 3.7 | 5.4 | 5.1 |
Sources
Eurostat. 2021. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed March 23, 2021. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_-217AA5A1_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-055624AGE,TOTAL;DS-055624S_ADJ,SA;DS-055624UNIT,PC_ACT;DS-055624SEX,T;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.
Office for National Statistics. 2021. "X01: Labour Force Survey Single-Month Estimates." Accessed March 23, 2021. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourforcesurveysinglemonthestimatesx01.