In 2018, for graduates aged 20-34 in the European Union (EU) who had attained a tertiary level education within the previous three years, the employment rate stood at 85.5%.
This is 0.6 percentage points above the rate in 2017 and 1.4 percentage points below the previous high point of 86.9% in 2008.
The EU Member States with the highest employment rates for recent tertiary graduates in 2018 were Malta (96.7%), the Netherlands (94.8%), Germany (94.3%) and Luxembourg (94.0%). In contrast, there were four EU Member States where the rate was less than 80%: Spain (77.9%), Croatia (75.2%), Italy (62.8%) and Greece (59.0%).
Young people with a tertiary level of educational attainment (ISCED levels 5-8) recorded the highest employment rates and were generally better shielded from the risks of unemployment than their peers who entered the labour market with lower levels of educational attainment.
The source dataset can be found here.
More information is available from the following articles:
- Employment rates of recent graduates
- Statistics on young people neither in employment nor in education or training
- Early leavers from education and training
- Participation of young people in education and the labour market
- Overview of the labour force survey
To contact us, please visit our User Support page.
For press queries, please contact our Media Support.