In February 2024, the euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 6.5%, stable compared with January 2024 and down from 6.6% in February 2023.

The EU unemployment rate was 6.0% in February 2024, also stable compared with January 2024 and compared with February 2023, according to the Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, published on Wednesday.

Eurostat estimates that 13.249 million persons in the EU, of whom 11.102 million in the euro area, were unemployed in February 2024.

Compared with January 2024, unemployment decreased by 13 thousand in the EU and increased by 17 thousand in the euro area.

Compared with February 2023, unemployment increased by 156 thousand in the EU and decreased by 30 thousand in the euro area.

Youth unemployment

In February 2024, 2.899 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU, of whom 2.319 million were in the euro area.

In February 2024, the youth unemployment rate was 14.8% in the EU, down from 14.9% in January 2024, and 14.6% in the euro area, stable compared to the previous month.

Compared with January 2024, youth unemployment decreased by 13 thousand in the EU and by 4 thousand in the euro area.

Compared with February 2023, youth unemployment increased by 174 thousand in the EU and by 91 thousand in the euro area.

Unemployment by sex

In February 2024, the unemployment rate for women was 6.4% in the EU, stable compared with January 2024, and the unemployment rate for men was 5.7%, down from 5.8% in the previous month.

In the euro area, the unemployment rate for women was 6.9% and the unemployment rate for men was 6.1%, both stable compared with January 2024.

Additional labour market indicators

The estimates in this News Release are based on the globally used International Labour Organisation (ILO) standard definition of unemployment, which counts as unemployed people without a job who have been actively seeking work in the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks.

To capture in full the labour market situation, the data on unemployment have been complemented by additional indicators, e.g. underemployed part-time workers, persons seeking work but not immediately available and persons available to work but not seeking, released together with LFS data for the fourth quarter of 2023.

LFS data for the first quarter of 2024 will be released on 14 June 2024.