56% of youth in jobs matching their field of education

In 2024, 56.4% of young people aged 15-34 in the EU with a medium or high level of education reported a very high or high match between their field of education and their job requirements. Separately, 46.1% of those with medium level of education and 68.1% with high level of education reported a very high or high match.

This measure (match between field of education and current/last main job and field of education) captures the self-reported match between a person's field of education for persons with medium or high level of education and the requirements of their current or last main job on the scale: very high, high, moderate, low or no match.

The best match was found in the health and welfare field, where 80.6% of those with a high level of education worked very closely to their attained field of education. The next best matches were found in information and communication technologies (77.0%) and in education (73.6%).

By contrast, 52.2% of young people with a high level of education who graduated in arts and humanities had difficulties finding a relevant job, followed by those working in social sciences, journalism and information (59.1%) and services (59.3%).

Source dataset: lfso_24match06

At the national level, Latvia (76.5%), Lithuania (76.1%) and Germany (75.2%) had the highest shares of people with a medium or high level of education reporting a very high or high between their field of education and their current or last main job requirements.

By contrast, young people in Italy (41.6%), Slovakia (46.2%) and Denmark (47.1%) had the biggest problems finding a job that would highly match with their field of education.

Source dataset: lfso_24match06