The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU state as of June 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, Spain, is 13.00 percentage points (same as 13.00 last month and down from 15.70 last year). Czechia had the lowest rate both last month and last year. Spain had the highest rate last month while Greece had the highest rate last year.
- Spain has 6.00 times the unemployment rate that Czechia does. The ratio of highest rate to lowest rate was down from 6.42 last month and down from 9.72 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.20 (up from 5.90 the previous month and up from 5.25 last year) and the mean 6.94 (up from 6.74 the previous month and up from 5.94 last year).
- Three states saw no change in their unemployment rate from the previous month, seven saw an improvement, and 18 states saw their rate increase.
- Zero states saw no change in their unemployment rate from last year, four saw an improvement, and 24 states saw their rate increase.
Caveats
- Data is from June 2020 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from May 2020 and Greece and the United Kingdom which are from April 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, France had the best performance over the previous month dropping 0.5 percentage points. Portugal had the worst performance rising 1.1 percentage points. Year over year, Greece had the best performance with a 2.0 percentage point drop while Latvia had the worst performance with a 3.7 percentage point rise in the unemployment rate.
In relative terms, France had the best performance over the previous month with a 6.10% drop in its rate while the Netherlands had the worst performance with a 19.44% rise in its rate. Year over year, Greece had the best performance with a 11.43% drop in its rate while Latvia had the worst performance with a 57.81% rise in its rate.
Three EU states have an unemployment rate below four percent (down from four last month, down from eight last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages. Seventeen have a rate between four and eight percent (up from 15 last month, up from 16 last year), and eight have a rate above eight percent (down from nine last month, up from four last year).
Malta (from 7th lowest unemployment rate to 4th lowest) bested three states over the course of the month. On the flip side, the Netherlands (from 3rd to 6th) and Hungary (from 5th to 8th) were each bested by three states. Year-over-year, France (from 25th to 19th) surpassed six states. Conversely, Latvia (from 19th to 26th) was bested by seven states.
Data
| State | Last Year | Previous Rate | Latest Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 4.4 | 5.9 | 5.7 |
| Belgium | 5.4 | 5.4 | 5.5 |
| Bulgaria | 4 | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| Croatia | 6.6 | 8.9 | 8.8 |
| Cyprus | 7.2 | 10.2 | 9.8 |
| Czechia | 1.8 | 2.4 | 2.6 |
| Denmark | 4.6 | 5.5 | 5.8 |
| Estonia | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| Finland | 6.8 | 7.2 | 7.3 |
| France | 8.5 | 8.2 | 7.7 |
| Germany | 3 | 4.1 | 4.2 |
| Greece | 17.5 | 14.5 | 15.5 |
| Hungary | 3.4 | 4.1 | 4.8 |
| Ireland | 5.1 | 5.6 | 5.3 |
| Italy | 9.6 | 8.3 | 8.8 |
| Latvia | 6.4 | 9.8 | 10.1 |
| Lithuania | 6.2 | 9.3 | 9.4 |
| Luxembourg | 5.7 | 7.7 | 7.7 |
| Malta | 3.3 | 4.3 | 4.2 |
| Netherlands | 3.4 | 3.6 | 4.3 |
| Poland | 3.3 | 2.9 | 3 |
| Portugal | 6.6 | 5.9 | 7 |
| Romania | 3.8 | 5.2 | 5.2 |
| Slovakia | 5.8 | 6.5 | 6.6 |
| Slovenia | 4.5 | 4.8 | 4.8 |
| Spain | 14.2 | 15.4 | 15.6 |
| Sweden | 6.5 | 8.5 | 9.2 |
| United Kingdom | 3.7 | 3.8 | 3.9 |
Sources
Eurostat. 2020. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed August 12, 2020. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_76E54A62_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.