Where youth unemployment is highest
Three million young Europeans want work and can’t find it. In Finland it is one in four of those looking; in Malta, fewer than one in ten.
- 15.5%
- EU youth unemployment rate, September 2026
- 3.02m
- Young people (under 25) unemployed in the EU
- 25.6%
- The EU peak, in January 2013
- 9.6%
- Malta’s rate in September, fourth-lowest in the EU
Key findings
- 15.5% of under-25s in the EU labour force were unemployed in September 2026: 3.02 million people, two and a half times the overall rate of 6.2%.
- Rates range from 25.2% in Finland to 7.5% in Germany; Malta, at 9.6%, is fourth-lowest.
- The EU rate is well below its 2013 peak of 25.6% and has been broadly flat at around 15% since 2022.
In September, 15.5% of young people in the EU’s labour force were unemployed: 3.02 million people under 25 who wanted a job, were looking for one and didn’t have one. That is two and a half times the EU’s overall unemployment rate of 6.2%.
The average hides a wide range. Among countries that publish monthly, the rate ran from 25.2% in Finland to 7.5% in Germany.
unemployedin work
North and south, for different reasons
The top of the table mixes two different groups. Finland, Estonia and Sweden all have youth rates above 21%. Spain, France, Luxembourg, Italy and Portugal are all close to 20% or above.
In the Nordic and Baltic countries, many students look for part-time or summer work while they study. That puts them in the labour force, and when they don’t find a job they count as unemployed, usually for short spells. In southern Europe the problem is more often young people who have finished education and can’t find a first stable job. Spain alone has 449,000 unemployed under-25s; France, at 21.9%, has 755,000, the most of any country.
RO 
FI 
EE 
ES 
LU 
FR 
SE 
IT 
PT 
BE 
SK 
EL 
LV 
DK 
HR 
EU 
HU 
SI 
LT 
BG 
AT 
IE 
CY 
PL 
MT 
CZ 
NL 
DE Germany and the Netherlands at the bottom
Germany (7.5%) and the Netherlands (8.8%) have the lowest rates, followed by Czechia (8.9%). Germany and the Netherlands both have strong apprenticeship systems that move young people from school into work with an employer already attached, and apprentices count as employed while they train.
Malta: fewer than one in ten
Malta’s youth rate was 9.6% in September, the fourth-lowest in the EU, against an overall unemployment rate of 3.4%, joint second-lowest with Poland and Bulgaria. In absolute terms that is about 3,000 young people. A low rate says nothing about the jobs young people find, their pay or whether they are temporary; those are questions for a later issue.
Half the 2013 peak
The longer view matters. EU youth unemployment peaked at 25.6% in January 2013, after the euro crisis, when Spain’s annual rate reached 55.5% and Greece’s 59.2%. By 2025 those two were at 24.9% and 19.1%. The EU rate has been broadly flat since 2022, at around 15%.
Young workers are usually the first to feel a slowdown: they are more likely to be on temporary contracts and the last to be hired. With overall EU unemployment flat at 6.2% for four months, the youth rate is the early-warning number to watch.
Questions readers ask
What is the youth unemployment rate in the EU?
15.5% in September 2026, or 3.02 million people under 25, according to Eurostat (seasonally adjusted, published 30 October 2026).
Which EU country has the highest youth unemployment?
Among countries with monthly data, Finland at 25.2% in September 2026, followed by Estonia (23.9%) and Spain (22.8%). Romania, which publishes quarterly, was at 30.8% in June.
What is youth unemployment in Malta?
9.6% in September 2026, the fourth-lowest in the EU after Germany, the Netherlands and Czechia.
When was EU youth unemployment highest?
In January 2013, at 25.6% on Eurostat’s monthly series; the annual average for 2013 was 25.2%.
How we did this
The youth unemployment rate is the number of unemployed people aged under 25 as a share of all under-25s in the labour force (working or actively looking for work), seasonally adjusted, from Eurostat’s monthly series une_rt_m. Students who are not looking for work are not counted. The long-run chart uses annual averages (une_rt_a). Monthly figures for small countries come from small survey samples and move a lot from month to month.
Sources
- Eurostat: Euro area unemployment at 6.5% (30 October 2026)
- Eurostat database: une_rt_m (monthly unemployment)
- Eurostat database: une_rt_a (annual unemployment)
- Eurostat: Euro area unemployment at 6.4% (1 September 2026)
The tables behind our charts are in the Data Room. To cite this article: Jake Aquilina, “Where youth unemployment is highest”, Signal and Noise, 2 November 2026, https://signalandnoise.xyz/stories/youth-unemployment/.