Spain boasts the highest unemployment rate in the European Union for another month

Spain once again reported the highest unemployment rate in the European Union in September 2025, with a rate of 10.5%, new data from Eurostat has revealed.

Other countries to report an above-average unemployment rate for the month included Finland (9.6%), Sweden (8.7%), Greece (8.2%) and France (7.6%).

At the other end of the scale, Malta and Czechia both reported an unemployment rate of 3.0% for the month, with Slovenia on 3.1% and Poland on 3.2%.

Read more: National plan needed to boost Spain’s productivity and address unemployment

Unemployment in the EU

In September 2025, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the European Union stood at 6.0%, on a par with the previous month and slightly higher than the 5.9% recorded in the corresponding month a year earlier.

In the euro area, the rate stood at 6.3%, unchanged from both the previous month and the corresponding month in 2024.

According to Eurostat, some 13,246 million people were unemployed in the EU in September 2025, of which 11,003 million were located in the euro area.

This means that unemployment numbers increased by 63,000 in the EU compared to the previous month, and by 65,000 in the euro area. In terms of a year-on-year comparison, unemployment numbers were up by 227,000 in the EU and by 187,000 in the euro area.

In terms of youth unemployment, there were 2,866 million under 25s unemployed in the EU, of which 2,282 million were in the euro area. By gender, meanwhile, the unemployment rate for women in the EU stood at 6.1% and for men 5.8%. Read more here.

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