Unemployment in the EU, August 2026: total and youth rates in 27 countries

Eurostat publishes unemployment rates for all EU countries each month. The figures below are for August 2026, the latest month with a total rate for all 27 countries, and come from the Eurostat database and its monthly release of 1 October 2026. All rates are seasonally adjusted.

The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed people as a percentage of the labour force, meaning everyone aged 15 to 74 who is either working or looking for work. The youth rate does the same for people aged 15 to 24. Eurostat notes that it should not be read as the share of all young people who are out of work: young people who are neither working nor looking for work are not in the labour force.

Across the EU, 6.1% of the labour force was unemployed in August 2026, the same as in July and up from 6.0% in August 2025. In the euro area the rate was 6.4%. Youth unemployment was 15.4% in the EU and 15.0% in the euro area.

The table

Ranked from the lowest to the highest total rate. For Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Romania and Slovenia, Eurostat publishes youth figures from quarterly data, so there is no youth rate for August; the table shows the latest one, for June 2026.

Lowest unemployment

Czechia had the lowest rate in August 2026, at 3.2%. Malta, Poland and Slovenia followed at 3.4%, and Bulgaria at 3.5%. Germany and the Netherlands were at 4.0%.

Germany also had the lowest youth rate among the countries with August data, at 7.4%, followed by the Netherlands at 8.8% and Malta at 9.7%. In these three, fewer than one in ten young people in the labour force were unemployed.

Highest unemployment

Spain had the highest rate, at 10.0%, followed by Finland (9.9%), Sweden (8.9%) and France (8.2%).

Youth unemployment was above 20% in several countries. Estonia had the highest rate among those with August data, at 28.4%, while its total rate was 8.0%. Sweden (23.0%), Finland (22.8%), Spain (22.7%), Luxembourg (20.8%), France (20.6%) and Italy (20.3%) were also above 20%. Romania's latest youth figure, for June, was 30.8%.

The gap between young people and everyone else

In 23 of the 27 countries the youth rate is between two and four times the total rate. It is more than four times the total in Romania (6.4% against 30.8%) and Slovenia (3.4% against 14.3%), both using June youth figures; among countries with August data, the widest gap is in Bulgaria (3.5% against 13.5%). The gap is narrowest in Germany (4.0% against 7.4%) and Austria (6.7% against 13.1%), where the youth rate is less than twice the total.

What the figures do not show

• Your chances of finding a job. The rate describes the labour market as a whole. It says nothing about demand in your field, whether employers hire from abroad, or which languages they require. A country with high unemployment can still have shortages in some occupations. Our article on jobs countries recruit abroad looks at that side.
• Regional differences. These are national rates; regions within a country can differ from them.
• Work permits. For people from outside the EU, the right to work depends on a visa or permit, whatever the unemployment rate.

How to use these figures

1. Read the youth column if you are under 25. It describes your part of the market much better than the total rate.
2. Look at the trend, not one month. Monthly rates move by a few tenths of a point; small changes between neighbours mean little.
3. Check demand in your occupation. National unemployment is a starting point; job listings and shortage lists in your field tell you more.

For the paperwork side, see our guide to job seeker visas. Country profiles: Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Finland, Sweden and Estonia.