According to the most recent Eurostat numbers only four European countries made it into the lowest bracket of unemployment i.e. 2.3%-3.8%. They were Czechia, Germany, Hungary and Poland. However, if the range was 1/10% lower (i.e. 3.7%) there would only be two members since Hungary and Poland were both at 3.8%. Also several countries do not report to Eurostat on a timely manner and so they are not included. Typically Italy and Turkey have Unemployment rates near the highest end of the scale.
The highest reported Unemployment rate is Greece at 18.8% followed by Spain at 15%. Both of these levels are higher than the U.S. had at the worst of the last recession.
Historical European Unemployment 2008-2018
As we can see from the following chart Greece and Spain had the highest peak unemployment around 2013 peaking between 25-30%. Interestingly, Denmark, Netherlands and Austria started with the lowest unemployment back in 2008 but Denmark spiked up while Germany actually declined. Germany crossed below Denmark in 2010, below Netherlands in 2012 and below Austria in 2013.
Europe Unemployment Chart 2008-2018
The massive amounts of refugees entering Europe has impacted their unemployment rates to an extent but not as much as you would think. Historically, Germany has had a low birth rate and has required immigrants to fill jobs unfilled by Germans. Thus Germany has a fairly efficient process for granting residency and work status to refugees but until they have met those requirements they would not be counted as unemployed. On the other hand, countries with a less efficient system could have uncounted unemployed for much longer periods.
I’m sure very few of these people have been counted in Paris’ Unemployment rate. Remember one requirement of being counted as “Unemployed” is that you have actively looked for a job.
Other Sources:
According to Trading Economics as of August 2018 Turkey’s Unemployment was 11.1%. Norway’s Unemployment rate was 4% in September, Italy was 10.6% in October, UK’s October Unemployment was 4.1%, Iceland 3.1%, Austria was 7.3% in October and 7.6% in November, while Switzerland was 2.4% and 2.5% in October and November respectively. Cyprus was 8.5% in October.
Note:
The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed persons as a percentage of the labour force (the total number of people employed and unemployed) based on International Labour Office (ILO) definition. Unemployed persons comprise persons aged 15 to 74 who fulfil all the three following conditions:
– are without work during the reference week;
– are available to start work within the next two weeks;
– have been actively seeking work in the past four weeks or have already found a job to start within the next three months.
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