The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU state as of April 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 13.50 percentage points (up from 13.40 last month and up from 13.20 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.
- Greece has 5.35 times the unemployment rate that Poland does. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was up from 5.32 last month and down from 7.00 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.20 (up from 6.15 the previous month and up from 5.60 last year) and the mean 6.84 (up from 6.80 the previous month and up from 6.35 last year).
- Of the 28 states, 7 saw no change in the unemployment rate from the previous month, 11 saw an improvement, and 10 saw the rate increase.
- Of the 28 states, 3 saw no change in the unemployment rate from last year, 7 saw an improvement, and 18 saw the rate increase.
Caveats
- Data is from April 2021 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from March 2021, and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from February 2021 (previous month and year rates also reflect the respective one, two, and three 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, France had the best performance over the previous month dropping 0.6 percentage points. Cyprus had the worst performance rising 1.4 percentage points. Year over year, Bulgaria had the best performance with a 1.2 percentage point drop while Italy had the worst performance with a 3.3 percentage point rise in the unemployment rate.
In relative terms, Hungary had the best performance over the previous month with a 8.89% drop in the rate while Cyprus had the worst performance with a 17.50% rise in the rate. Year over year, Bulgaria had the best performance with a 20.34% drop in the rate while Czechia had the worst performance with a 54.55% rise in the rate.
Of the 28 states, 4 EU states have an unemployment rate below four percent (same as 4 last month, down from 5 last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages. Of the 28, 19 have a rate between four and eight percent (down from 20 last month, down from 20 last year), and 5 have a rate above eight percent (up from 4 last month, up from 3 last year).
France (from 23rd to 19th) rose 4 spots over the course of the month. On the flip side, Lithuania (from 15th to 18th) fell 3 spots. Year-over-year, Bulgaria (from 15th to 7th) rose 8 spots. Conversely, Italy (from 19th to 26th) fell 7 spots.
Data
| State | Last Year | Previous Rate | Latest Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 4.9 | 5.6 | 5.6 |
| Belgium | 4.9 | 5.4 | 5.3 |
| Bulgaria | 5.9 | 5.1 | 4.7 |
| Croatia | 7.8 | 7.1 | 7.5 |
| Cyprus | 7.5 | 8 | 9.4 |
| Czechia | 2.2 | 3.3 | 3.4 |
| Denmark | 5 | 5.8 | 5.7 |
| Estonia | 5.1 | 6.8 | 6.8 |
| Finland | 7.2 | 7.7 | 8 |
| France | 7.4 | 7.9 | 7.3 |
| Germany | 4 | 4.5 | 4.4 |
| Greece | 15.4 | 16.5 | 16.6 |
| Hungary | 3.4 | 4.5 | 4.1 |
| Ireland | 4.7 | 5.8 | 5.8 |
| Italy | 7.4 | 10.4 | 10.7 |
| Latvia | 8.3 | 7.7 | 7.8 |
| Lithuania | 7.9 | 6.5 | 7 |
| Luxembourg | 7.4 | 6.6 | 6.6 |
| Malta | 4.4 | 3.8 | 3.8 |
| Netherlands | 3.4 | 3.5 | 3.4 |
| Poland | 3.1 | 3.1 | 3.1 |
| Portugal | 6.4 | 6.6 | 6.9 |
| Romania | 5.3 | 5.8 | 5.7 |
| Slovakia | 6.6 | 7.4 | 7.3 |
| Slovenia | 5.2 | 5.2 | 5.2 |
| Spain | 15.2 | 15.3 | 15.4 |
| Sweden | 7.9 | 9.5 | 9.1 |
| United Kingdom | 3.9 | 5 | 4.8 |
Sources
Eurostat. 2021. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed June 18, 2021. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_-1E469E03_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.
Hellenic Statistical Authority. 2021. "Statistics - ELSTAT." Accessed June 18, 2021. https://www.statistics.gr/en/statistics/-/publication/SJO02/-.
Office for National Statistics. 2021. "X01: Labour Force Survey Single-Month Estimates." Accessed June 18, 2021. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourforcesurveysinglemonthestimatesx01.