What EU country had the highest unemployment rate in May 2024?

Spain boasted the highest unemployment rate of all EU member states in May 2024, with a rate of 11.7%, ahead of Greece (10.6%) and Finland (8.2%).

At the other end of the spectrum, Czechia boasted the lowest unemployment rate in the month, of 2.7%, while Poland (3.0%) and Slovenia (3.2%) also had low unemployment rates.

At EU level, the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate stood at 6.0% in May, stable compared to both the previous month and with May 2023. Within the euro area specifically, the rate stood at 6.4%, again stable with the previous month, but down slightly (from 6.5%) on May 2023.

In terms of overall numbers, some 13.2 million people were unemployed in the EU in May 2024, 163,000 more than in the same month the previous year, the Eurostat data showed.

Youth unemployment

The youth unemployment rate (i.e. those under 25 years of age) stood at 14.4% in the EU in May 2024, down from 14.5% a month earlier. Compared with the same month the previous year, youth unemployment increased by around 80,000, the data showed.

In terms of sex, the unemployment rate for women was 6.3% in the European Union in May 2024, while the unemployment rate for men was 5.8%.

As regards Europe’s biggest economies, the unemployment rate in Germany stood at 3.3% for the month, in France it was 7.4%, and in Italy, the rate was 6.8%.

All estimates are based on the internationally recognised definition of unemployment set by the International Labour Organization (ILO), Eurostat said. According to this standard, unemployed individuals are those without a job who have actively sought employment in the past four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks.

Read more: Keep up to date with the latest unemployment data from across Europe here

Unemployment Rate by EU Member State, May 2024

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