Between the third and the fourth quarter of 2023, 3.2 million unemployed people aged 15-74 in the EU (24.5% of all unemployed in the third quarter of 2023) found a job. During this period, 6.7 million (51.1%) remained unemployed, while 3.2 million unemployed people (24.4%) transitioned out of the labour force.

The information comes from recently published data on labour market flows in the fourth quarter of 2023. This article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.

Transitions in labour market status in the EU, Q3 2023 - Q4 2023, population aged 15-74, in millions. Chart. See link to full dataset below


 
Source dataset: lfsi_long_q 

The visual and table give an overview of all possible transitions and show the changes in labour market status. In the visual, the figures for employment, unemployment and out of the labour force refer to the number of people remaining in each status between the two quarters. The grey arrows indicate the direction of net flows (see methodological notes). 

Transitions in labour market statusin the EU, Q3 2023 - Q4 2023, population aged 15-74, as % of initial status. Chart. See link to full dataset below.

Source dataset: lfsi_long_q 

Of all those in employment in the third quarter of 2023, 2.5 million (1.2%) became unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2023, and 4.9 million (2.4%) transitioned out of the labour force.

From those counted as out of the labour force in the third quarter of 2023, 5.2 million (4.5%) moved into employment in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 4.1 million (3.5%) transitioned into unemployment.

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Methodological notes

  • The labour market flows published from 2021 onwards are based on the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) under the Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 on European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at individual level collected from samples. More details about the Regulation can be found in the Statistics Explained article.
  • The figures are based on seasonally adjusted data.
  • Metadata on labour market transitions.

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