In February 2025, the euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 6.1%, down from 6.2% in January 2025 and from 6.5% in February 2024. The EU unemployment rate was 5.7% in February 2025, also down from 5.8% in January 2025 and from 6.1% in February 2024. These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Eurostat estimates that 12.677 million persons in the EU, of whom 10.580 million in the euro area, were unemployed in February 2025.
Compared with January 2025, unemployment decreased by 131 thousand in the EU and by 70 thousand in the euro area.
Compared with February 2024, unemployment decreased by 643 thousand both in the EU and in the euro area.
Youth unemployment
In February 2025, 2.835 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU, of whom 2.272 million were in the euro area. In February 2025, the youth unemployment rate was 14.5% in the EU, down from 14.6% in January 2025, and 14.2% in the euro area, up from 14.1% in the previous month.
Compared with January 2025, youth unemployment decreased by 16 thousand in the EU and increased by 13 thousand in the euro area.
Compared with February 2024, youth unemployment decreased by 63 thousand in the EU and by 85 thousand in the euro area.
Unemployment by sex
In February 2025, the unemployment rate for women was 6.0% in the EU, stable compared with the previous month, and the unemployment rate for men was 5.5%, down from 5.6% in January 2025. In the euro area, the unemployment rate for women was 6.4%, stable compared with the previous month, and the unemployment rate for men was 5.9%, down from 6.0% in January 2025.
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 2024.
LFS data for the first quarter of 2025 will be released on 13 June 2025.