European Union: Unemployment Rate at 5.9 Percent in December 2024
In the eurozone, the unemployment rate in December 2024 was 6.3 percent
Eurostat, the European Union’s statistical office, released employment data for the EU and the eurozone on Thursday, January 30. In December 2024, the unemployment rate in the eurozone (countries using the single European currency) was 6.3%, up from 6.2% in November but down from 6.5% in the previous December. The European Union unemployment rate was 5.9%, up from 5.8% in November but also below the 6% rate in December 2023.
As Eurostat notes, “Italy recorded an unemployment rate of 6.2% in December 2024 among the largest economies, up from 5.9% in November but sharply below 7.1% in December 2023.”
As for other major Old World economies, Germany’s unemployment rate in December 2024 was 3.4%, Spain’s was 10.6%, France’s was 7.8%, and the Netherlands’ was 3.7%.
A separate chapter in the Eurostat report is devoted to youth unemployment. In December 2024, the European Union as a whole had 2.93 million unemployed people under the age of 25, of which 2.35 million were in the eurozone. In the EU, youth unemployment rate was 15% in November 2020, slightly down from 15.2% in November 2024. In the eurozone, the youth unemployment rate is also falling from 14.9% recorded in November to 14.8% in December 2024.
As for youth unemployment in some European countries, Italy recorded 19.4%, which is comparable to November. Among other major economies, Spain is the “black sheep” with 25.3%, followed by France with 20.4% and the Netherlands with 8.7%, while Germany has a youth unemployment rate of 6.4%.
