Spain continues to boast the highest unemployment rate in the EU, followed by Finland

Spain reported a seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of 10.3% in August 2025, with the Mediterranean country once again boasting the highest unemployment rate in the EU, new data from Eurostat has found.

Finland, with an unemployment rate of 10.1% in August, follows closely behind, with Sweden (8.8%), Estonia (8.2%), Greece (8.1%) and France (7.5%) among the other countries with a higher than average unemployment rate.

At the other end of the scale, Slovenia (2.9%) and Malta (2.9%) boasted the lowest unemployment rate in the EU in August 2025, followed by Poland and Czechia (both 3.2%), Bulgaria (3.6%) and Germany (3.7%).

EU unemployment rate

Across the EU, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate stood at 5.9% for the month, which is the same as in July 2025 and also compared to the same month a year earlier. In the euro area specifically, the rate was 6.3%, up from 6.2% the previous month and stable with the corresponding month a year earlier.

Some 13.09 million people across the EU were unemployed in August 2025, including 10.84 million in the euro area. Compared with July 2025, the number of unemployed persons increased by 39,000 in the EU and by 11,000 in the euro area.

In terms of youth unemployment meanwhile, the youth unemployment rate reached 14.6% in the EU (2.82 million people) and 14.0% in the euro area specifically (2.22 million). Read more here.

Unemployment Rate by EU Member State, August 2025 (%)