Employment rate up in Q2 2026

In the second quarter of 2026, the employment rate of people aged 20-64 in the EU stood at 76.4%, up from 76.3% in the first quarter of 2026.

Labour market slack - all persons with an unmet need for employment, including unemployed persons - stood at 11.0% of the extended labour force aged 20-64 in the second quarter of 2026, stable compared with the first quarter of 2026.

These figures are based on data on the labour market in the second quarter of 2026, published today by Eurostat. This article presents only a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.

Source datasets: lfsi_emp_q and lfsi_sla_q

Between the first and the second quarter of 2026, Portugal and Malta (+0.6 percentage points (pp) each), Greece (+0.5 pp) and Latvia and Slovenia (+0.4 pp each) registered the largest increases in the employment rate among the 14 EU countries where employment rose. The employment rate remained stable in 4 EU countries and decreased in 9 EU countries, with the largest decreases in Austria (-0.4 pp), and in Lithuania and Sweden (-0.3 pp each).

Source dataset: lfsi_emp_q