What EU country boasted the highest employment rate in Q2 2025?

Malta boasted the highest employment rate in the EU in the second quarter of this year, with 83.4% of those aged between 20 and 64 years of age currently employed.

Other countries to report a high employment rate during the period included the Netherlands (83.4%), Czechia (83.0%), Sweden (81.9%), Estonia (81.7%) and Germany (81.3%).

At the other end of the scale, the EU countries with the lowest employment rate, as of the second quarter of this year, included Italy (67.4%), Romania (68.6%), Greece (70.9%) and Spain (72.3%), the data showed.

Employment rate in the EU

At EU level, the employment rate for people aged 20 to 64 reached 76.2% in the second quarter of 2025, which is slightly up on 76.1% in the first quarter of the year.

Eurostat also reported that labour market slack – which covers all persons with an unmet need for employment, including unemployed people – remained unchanged at 10.9% of the extended labour force in the same age group.

Between the first and second quarters of 2025, changes in employment levels varied across EU member states. Latvia recorded the strongest increase in employment, with a rise of 1.3 percentage points between Q1 and Q2.

Estonia and Belgium also saw notable quarter-on-quarter gains, of 0.8 and 0.7 percentage points respectively. Overall, some 18 EU countries registered growth in their employment rates over the period.

Two countries reported no change in employment rate from the first to the second periods – the Netherlands and Sweden. Hungary recorded the largest fall, at 0.5 percentage points, while Italy’s rate was down by 0.3 points. Read more here.

Employment Rate by EU Member State – Q2 2025 (%)

Editor

See Full Bio