The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU state as of February 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, Spain, is 13.00 percentage points (down from 13.10 last month and down from 14.60 last year). Poland had the lowest rate last month and Czechia had the lowest rate last year. Greece had the highest rate last month and last year.
- Spain has 5.19 times the unemployment rate that Poland does. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was down from 5.23 last month and down from 9.11 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.40 (same as 6.40 the previous month and up from 5.00 last year) and the mean 6.99 (up from 6.94 the previous month and up from 5.89 last year).
- Of the 28 states, ten saw no change in the unemployment rate from the previous month, eight saw an improvement, and ten saw the rate increase.
- Of the 28 states, zero saw no change in the unemployment rate from last year, one saw an improvement, and 27 saw the rate increase.
Caveats
- Data is from February 2021 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from January 2021 and Finland, Greece, and the United Kingdom which are from December 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, Greece had the best performance over the previous month dropping 0.4 percentage points. Hungary had the worst performance rising 0.8 percentage points. Year over year, Greece had the best performance with a 0.6 percentage point drop while Lithuania had the worst performance with a 2.9 percentage point rise in the unemployment rate.
In relative terms, Slovenia had the best performance over the previous month with a 3.92% drop in the rate while Hungary had the worst performance with a 19.51% rise in the rate. Year over year, Greece had the best performance with a 3.66% drop in the rate while Czechia had the worst performance with a 77.78% rise in the rate.
Three EU states have an unemployment rate below four percent (same as three last month, down from seven last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages. Eighteen have a rate between four and eight percent (down from 19 last month, same as 18 last year), and seven have a rate above eight percent (up from six last month, up from three last year).
Austria (from 12th to 10th) rose two spots over the course of the month. On the flip side, Estonia (from 15th to 18th) fell three spots. Year-over-year, France (from 25th to 21st) rose four spots. Conversely, Estonia (from 12th to 18th) fell six spots.
Data
| State | Last Year | Previous Rate | Latest Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 4.5 | 5.7 | 5.7 |
| Belgium | 5 | 5.6 | 5.7 |
| Bulgaria | 4.1 | 5.5 | 5.3 |
| Croatia | 5.9 | 7.2 | 7.1 |
| Cyprus | 6.1 | 6.8 | 6.8 |
| Czechia | 1.8 | 3.3 | 3.2 |
| Denmark | 5 | 6.1 | 6.1 |
| Estonia | 5 | 6.7 | 7.1 |
| Finland | 6.6 | 7.8 | 8.4 |
| France | 7.7 | 7.9 | 8 |
| Germany | 3.6 | 4.6 | 4.5 |
| Greece | 16.4 | 16.2 | 15.8 |
| Hungary | 3.8 | 4.1 | 4.9 |
| Ireland | 5 | 5.8 | 5.8 |
| Italy | 9.8 | 10.3 | 10.2 |
| Latvia | 7.2 | 8.5 | 8.7 |
| Lithuania | 6.7 | 9.6 | 9.6 |
| Luxembourg | 5.7 | 6.8 | 6.7 |
| Malta | 3.5 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| Netherlands | 2.9 | 3.6 | 3.6 |
| Poland | 3 | 3.1 | 3.1 |
| Portugal | 6.5 | 6.9 | 6.9 |
| Romania | 4.2 | 5.6 | 5.7 |
| Slovakia | 6 | 7.2 | 7.3 |
| Slovenia | 4.2 | 5.1 | 4.9 |
| Spain | 13.6 | 16 | 16.1 |
| Sweden | 7.5 | 8.9 | 8.9 |
| United Kingdom | 3.7 | 5.1 | 5.2 |
Sources
Eurostat. 2021. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed April 12, 2021. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_4472AF17_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 April 12, 2021. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourforcesurveysinglemonthestimatesx01.