The labour market across the EU slightly recovered in the fourth quarter of 2020.
In the EU, the employment rate of people aged 20-64 stood at 72.6% in the fourth quarter of 2020, which represents an increase of 0.3 percentage points (pp) compared with the third quarter of 2020.
The labour market slack, which comprises all people who have an unmet need for employment and of which one of the main components is unemployment, amounted to 13.7% of the extended labour force aged 20-64 in the fourth quarter 2020, down from 14.1% in the third quarter 2020 (-0.4 pp).
This information comes from data on the labour market in the fourth quarter of 2020 published by Eurostat today. The article presents only a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.
Source datasets: lfsi_emp_q and lfsi_sla_q
Changes in the employment rate between the third and the fourth quarter of 2020 varied across the EU Member States. The highest increases were recorded in Luxembourg (+2.1 pp) and Estonia (+1.2 pp). While employment rose in 18 EU Member States, five recorded a decrease: Slovakia and Belgium (both -0.3 pp), Austria (-0.2 pp), Hungary and Cyprus (both -0.1 pp).
Source dataset: lfsi_emp_q
For more information:
- This article used quarterly and seasonally adjusted Labour Force Survey (LFS) data.
- Eurostat website section dedicated to EU Labour Force Survey
- Eurostat database of EU Labour Force Survey
- The extended labour force is the total number of people employed plus unemployed, plus those seeking work but not immediately available plus those available to work but not seeking. In this article, data cover persons aged 20 to 64.
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