The chart above shows the unemployment rate in each EU state as of March 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 12.70 percentage points (down from 13.10 last month and down from 14.50 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 5.10 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 8.63 last year.
- The median unemployment rate in the 28 EU states is 6.25 (down from 6.35 the previous month and up from 5.00 last year) and the mean 6.85 (down from 6.96 the previous month and up from 5.94 last year).
- Of the 28 states, 6 saw no change in the unemployment rate from the previous month, 17 saw an improvement, and 5 saw the rate increase.
- Of the 28 states, 0 saw no change in the unemployment rate from last year, 1 saw an improvement, and 27 saw the rate increase.
Caveats
- Data is from March 2021 except for Estonia and Hungary which are from February 2021, the United Kingdom which is from January 2021, and Greece which is from December 2020 (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, Lithuania had the best performance over the previous month dropping 0.7 percentage points. Sweden had the worst performance rising 0.5 percentage points. Year over year, Greece had the best performance with a 0.6 percentage point drop while Sweden had the worst performance with a 2.9 percentage point rise in the unemployment rate.
In relative terms, Hungary had the best performance over the previous month with a 8.16% drop in the rate while Sweden had the worst performance with a 5.56% 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 68.42% rise in the rate.
Of the 28 states, 3 EU states have an unemployment rate below four percent (same as 3 last month, down from 7 last year) which traditionally has placed inflationary pressure on wages. Of the 28, 19 have a rate between four and eight percent (same as 19 last month, same as 19 last year), and 6 have a rate above eight percent (same as 6 last month, up from 2 last year).
Hungary (from 6th to 5th), Portugal (from 16th to 15th), Estonia (from 18th to 17th), and Lithuania (from 25th to 24th) rose one spot over the course of the month. On the flip side, Belgium (from 10th to 12th), Ireland (from 10th to 12th), and Cyprus (from 16th to 18th) fell two spots. Year-over-year, Luxembourg (from 19th to 16th) rose three spots. Conversely, Slovakia (from 16th to 20th) and Sweden (from 21st to 25th) fell four spots.
Data
| State | Last Year | Previous Rate | Latest Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austria | 4.8 | 5.7 | 5.6 |
| Belgium | 4.9 | 5.7 | 5.8 |
| Bulgaria | 4.4 | 5.5 | 5.1 |
| Croatia | 6.5 | 7.1 | 7.1 |
| Cyprus | 6.3 | 6.8 | 7.1 |
| Czechia | 1.9 | 3.2 | 3.2 |
| Denmark | 4.9 | 6 | 6 |
| Estonia | 5 | 7.1 | 6.8 |
| Finland | 6.9 | 7.9 | 7.7 |
| France | 7.4 | 8 | 7.9 |
| Germany | 3.8 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| Greece | 16.4 | 16.2 | 15.8 |
| Hungary | 3.5 | 4.9 | 4.5 |
| Ireland | 5 | 5.7 | 5.8 |
| Italy | 7.5 | 10.2 | 10.1 |
| Latvia | 7.4 | 8.7 | 8.7 |
| Lithuania | 7.2 | 9.6 | 8.9 |
| Luxembourg | 6.5 | 6.7 | 6.6 |
| Malta | 3.9 | 4.2 | 4.1 |
| Netherlands | 2.9 | 3.6 | 3.5 |
| Poland | 3 | 3.1 | 3.1 |
| Portugal | 6.3 | 6.8 | 6.5 |
| Romania | 4.5 | 5.7 | 5.5 |
| Slovakia | 6 | 7.3 | 7.4 |
| Slovenia | 4.5 | 4.9 | 4.8 |
| Spain | 14.5 | 15.5 | 15.3 |
| Sweden | 6.6 | 9 | 9.5 |
| United Kingdom | 3.9 | 5.2 | 5 |
Sources
Eurostat. 2021. "Unemployment by Sex and Age - Monthly Average." Accessed May 18, 2021. https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?query=BOOKMARK_DS-055624_QID_B05C663_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 May 18, 2021. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/datasets/labourforcesurveysinglemonthestimatesx01.