Finland boasted the highest unemployment rate in Europe in February 2026

Finland boasted an unemployment rate of 10.4% in February 2026, the only EU country to report a double-digit unemployment rate for the month, according to new data from Eurostat.

Other countries to report a high unemployment rate for the month included Spain (9.8%) and Greece (8.5%), while at the other end of the scale, the lowest unemployment rate was recorded in Czechia (3.2%), Poland (3.2%), and Bulgaria (3.2%).

Unemployment rate across Europe

As Eurostat‘s data showed, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the euro area increased slightly to 6.2% in February 2026, up from 6.1% in January, though still below the 6.3% recorded in February 2025.

Across the EU as a whole, unemployment remained stable at 5.9%, unchanged from the previous month and down slightly from 6.0% a year earlier.

According to the data, this translates to 10.919 million unemployed people in the euro area and 13.118 million in the EU.

Youth unemployment, defined as persons under 25 without work but actively seeking employment, remained high in February – some 14.9% of young people in the euro area were unemployed, while in the EU overall the rate edged up to 15.3%. This represents 2.373 million youth unemployed in the euro area and 2.957 million in the EU.

Notably, countries such as Spain and Finland recorded some of the highest youth unemployment rates, at 23.8% and 23.1%, respectively, while Germany reported a comparatively low 7.4%.

In terms of male and female unemployment, in the euro area, women faced a higher unemployment rate of 6.4%, up slightly from 6.3%, compared with 6.0% for men, which remained stable. In the EU overall, female unemployment rose to 6.1%, while male unemployment held steady at 5.7%. Read more here.

Unemployment Rate by EU Member State, February 2026 (%)

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