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In the EU, the employment rate of people aged 20-64 stood at 75.4% in the second quarter of 2023, an increase of 0.1 percentage points (pp) compared with the first quarter of 2023. 

Labour market slack – encompassing those with unmet employment needs, a large part of which includes unemployed individuals – amounted to 11.2% of the extended labour force aged 20-64 in the second quarter of 2023 (-0.1 pp compared with the first quarter 2023). 

This information comes from data on the labour market in the second quarter of 2023 published today by Eurostat. This article presents only a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.

Bar chart and trendline: employment rate and labour market slack in the EU (Q1 2009 to Q2 2023, population 20-64, seasonally adjusted data)

Source datasets: lfsi_emp_q and lfsi_sla_q

Changes in the employment rate between the first and the second quarter of 2023 varied across the EU countries. The highest increases were recorded in Slovenia (+1.3 pp), Portugal (+1.1 pp) and Latvia (+1.0 pp). 

bar chart: change in employment rate in EU countries (Q2 2023 compared with Q1 2023, 20-64, in percentage points, seasonally adjusted data)

Source dataset: lfsi_emp_q

While employment rose in 20 EU countries, it remained stable in Estonia and decreased in 6 EU countries, with the biggest decreases recorded in Bulgaria (-0.8 pp), Belgium (-0.7 pp) and Romania (-0.6 pp). 

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Methodological notes

  • 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 population aged 20 to 64. 
  • This article uses quarterly and seasonally adjusted data from the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) data.


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