EU labour market - quarterly statistics

Data extracted in March 2025

Planned article update: 13 June 2025

Highlights

In Q4 2024, the employment rate of people aged 20 to 64 years was 75.9%, while labour market slack stood at 10.8%.

Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q) and (lfsi_emp_q)

This article presents seasonally adjusted quarterly indicators on employment and labour market slack, which comprises all persons who have an unmet need for employment, including unemployed people. These indicators, taken together, are used to capture the most recent movements on the labour market in the EU countries.

Employment rate stable, labour market slack down in the EU

In the Q4 2024, 197.8 million persons in the EU were employed. The EU seasonally adjusted employment rate for people aged 20-64 years stood at 75.9%, stable compared with Q3 2024 as shown in Figure 1.

For the same period, the seasonally adjusted total labour market slack in the EU, which is the unmet need for work, amounted to 23.4 million persons, which represented 10.8% of the extended labour force in the Q4 2024, down from 10.9% in Q3 2024. Regarding its main component, unemployment, 11.6 million persons were unemployed in the Q4 2024. The EU seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 5.5%, down from 5.7% in Q3 2024. Underemployed part-time workers accounted for 2.3% of the extended labour force, those available for work but not seeking work accounted for another 2.3%, and those actively seeking work but not available to take up work accounted for 0.8%. These 3 indicators remained stable compared with Q3 2024.

Figure 1: Labour market slack and employment rate in the EU, Q1 2011 to Q4 2024 (age group 20-64, seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_sla_q) and (lfsi_emp_q)

Belgium, Estonia and Sweden see the greatest increase in labour market slack

Compared with Q3 2024, labour market slack in the EU decreased in 14 countries in Q4 2024. It remained stable in Germany, Denmark, Austria and Poland and increased in 9 countries. The largest increases were reported in Belgium (+0.8 percentage points (pp)) as well as in Estonia and Sweden (both +0.5 pp). Between Q3 2024 and Q4 2024 the employment rate changed in 25 EU countries and remained stable in Estonia and Hungary. The highest increases among the 15 EU countries where employment rose, were registered in Greece and Luxembourg (both +0.8 pp) as well as in Lithuania, Malta and Slovenia (all +0.5 pp). The largest decreases were recorded in Ireland (-0.6 pp) as well as in Finland, Italy and Malta (all -0.4 pp) as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Change in the employment rate and labour market slack in the EU Member States
(Q4 2024 compared with Q3 2024, age group 20-64, in percentage points, seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_emp_q) and (lfsi_sla_q)

Focus on the employment development by sex

When looking at the development of the employment rate for women and men, the employment rate for women decreased by -0.1 pp between Q3 2024 and the Q4 2024 while for men remained stable for the same period. The largest increases in the employment rate for women among EU countries were found in Lithuania and Luxembourg (both 1.1 pp), Bulgaria (0.8 pp) as well as in Belgium and Malta (both 0.7 pp). The largest increases in the employment rate for men among EU countries were registered in Greece (1.0 pp), Slovenia (0.8 pp) and Cyprus (0.7 pp), as shown in Figure 3. By contrast, the largest decreases in the employment rate for women among EU countries were found in Italy (by -1.0 pp), Sweden (by -0.8 pp) and Latvia (-0.6 pp). The largest decreases in the employment rate for men among EU countries were registered in Ireland (-0.8 pp) and Bulgaria (-0.5 pp) as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Change in the employment rate by sex in the EU Member States
(Q4 2024 compared with Q3 2024, age group 20-64, in percentage points, seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (lfsi_emp_q)

Unemployment in the EU countries

Comparing Q3 2024 with the Q4 2024, the unemployment rate at EU level decreased from 5.7 % to 5.5 % of the labour force. The largest decreases were registered in Croatia (from 5.1% to 4.4%) and Spain (from 10.9% to 10.4%). The unemployment rate remained unchanged in Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Romania, while it increased in 7 other countries. The largest increases were observed in Finland (from 7.8% to 8.3%), Estonia (from 7.2% to 7.6%) and Luxembourg (from 6.0% to 6.3%) as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Change in unemployment in the EU Member States
(Q4 2024 compared with Q3 2024, age group 20-64 years, in percentage points, seasonally adjusted data)
Source: Eurostat (une_rt_q)

Main indicators

Table 1: Employment, unemployment and labour market slack Q4 2024
(age group 20-64 years, seasonally adjusted data),
Source: Eurostat (une_rt_q), (lfsi_sla_q) and (lfsi_emp_q)

Source data for tables and graphs

EU labour market data: tables and graphs

Data sources

All figures in this article are based on seasonally adjusted quarterly results from the European Union Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS). The European Union labour force survey (EU-LFS) is the largest European household sample survey providing quarterly and annual results on labour participation of people aged 15 years and over as well as on persons outside the labour force. It covers residents in private households. Conscripts in military or community service are not included in the results. The EU-LFS is based on the same target populations and uses the same definitions in all countries, which means that the results are comparable between countries.

The labour market indicators published from the Q1 2021 are based on the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) collected under Regulation (EU) No 1700/2019 on European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples. Quarterly series for main indicators before 2021 are back-calculated in line with the new methodology up to the first quarter of 2009, see background article EU labour force survey - correction for breaks in time series.

Main methodological information

Country notes:

The Netherlands collects quarterly LFS data using a rolling reference week instead of a fixed reference week, i.e. interviewed persons are asked about the situation of the week before the interview rather than a pre-selected week.

Methods and definitions

Eurostat produces harmonised labour market data for individual EU countries, the euro area and the EU. The concepts and definitions used in the Labour Force Survey follow the guidelines of the International Labour Organisation.

Employed persons are all persons who worked at least 1 hour for pay or profit during the reference week or unpaid for a business owned by a member of the family, or were temporarily absent from such work. The employment rate is the percentage of employed persons in relation to the total population.

The Gender Employment Gap is the difference between the employment rates of men and women aged 20-64 years.

Unemployed persons are all persons who:

are without work;
are available to start work within 2 weeks; and
have actively sought employment at some time during the previous 4 weeks.

The labour market slack is the sum of unemployed persons, underemployed part-time workers, persons seeking work but not immediately available and persons available to work but not seeking, expressed as a percentage of the extended labour force.

Underemployed part-time workers are persons working part-time who wish to work additional hours and are available to do so. Part-time work is recorded as self-reported by individuals.

Persons seeking work but not immediately available are the sum of persons neither employed nor unemployed who: (a) are actively seeking work during the last 4 weeks but not available for work in the next 2 weeks; or (b) found a job to start within a period of at most 3 months and are not available for work in the next 2 weeks; or (c) found a job to start in more than 3 months but are not available for work in the next 2 weeks.

Persons available to work but not seeking are the sum of persons neither employed nor unemployed who want to work and (a) are available for work in the next 2 weeks but are not seeking work, or (b) were passively seeking work during the last 4 weeks and are available for work in the next 2 weeks or (c) found a job to start in more than 3 months and are available to work in the next 2 weeks.

The extended labour force is the total number of people employed plus unemployed, plus those seeking work but not immediately available plus those available to work but not seeking. In this article, data cover persons aged 20 to 64 years.

Notes

Explore further

Database

Employment and unemployment (Labour Force Survey) (employ), see:

LFS main indicators (lfsi)
- Unemployment - LFS adjusted series (une)
  - Supplementary indicators to unemployment - annual data (lfsi_sup_a)
  - Supplementary indicators to unemployment - quarterly data (lfsi_sup_q)
LFS series - Detailed annual survey results (lfsa)
- Total unemployment - LFS series (lfsa_unemp)
  - Supplementary indicators to unemployment by sex and age (lfsa_sup_age)
  - Supplementary indicators to unemployment by sex and educational attainment level (lfsa_sup_edu)
  - Supplementary indicators to unemployment by sex and citizenship (lfsa_sup_nat)
LFS series - Detailed quarterly survey results (lfsq)
- Total unemployment - LFS series (lfsq_unemp)
  - Supplementary indicators to unemployment by sex and age (lfsq_sup_age)
  - Supplementary indicators to unemployment by sex and educational attainment level (lfsq_sup_edu)