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In 2023, labour market slack accounted for 12.0% of the extended labour force, meaning that 27.1 million people aged 15 to 74 years in the EU were offering an unmatched supply of labour on the market, either because they were unemployed, underemployed, seeking a job even if not immediately available to work or immediately available to work but not seeking for. Labour market slack helps understand how much workforce is available but not fully productive. It is used to analyse employment dynamics and the overall health of an economy, since a low slack suggests the economy optimally exploits the supplied labour input. 

Among EU countries, in 2023, labour market slack was highest in Spain (20.2% of the extended labour force), Italy (17.7%), Sweden (16.4%) and Greece (16.3%). On the other hand, it was lowest in Poland (4.8%), Malta (5.2%), Hungary (6.0%), Czechia (6.4%) and Slovenia (6.5%). 

Source dataset: lfsi_sla_a


In terms of components of the labour supply, unemployment represented 5.8% of the extended labour force, while people available to work but not seeking represented 2.8% and underemployed part-time workers 2.5% of the extended labour force. People seeking work but not immediately available were 0.9% of the extended labour force.

Unemployment has the biggest weight on EU labour market slack

Looking at each component, data shows that in 24 EU countries, the shares of unemployed people are the biggest among the 4 components. The highest shares of unemployed people were observed in Spain (11.7% of the extended labour force) and Greece (10.8%). 

The exceptions were the Netherlands and Ireland where the shares of underemployed people working part-time were the highest slack component at 5.1% and 4.5%, respectively; and Czechia (3.2%) where the share of people seeking work but not immediately available was the highest among all the components. 

Labour market slack by country and components, 2023 (% of extended labour force aged 15-74). Stacked bar chart. See link below for full dataset.

Source dataset: lfsi_sla_a

For more information

Methodological notes

  • Labour market slack refers to all unmet needs for employment. The labour market slack includes unemployment according to the EU-Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) definition as well as 3 supplementary indicators. The exact definitions of these 3 indicators are as follows:
    • Underemployed part-time workers are people working part-time who wish to work additional hours and are available to do so. Part-time work is recorded as self-reported by individuals.
    • People seeking a job but not immediately available to work are people neither employed nor unemployed who: a) are actively seeking work during the last 4 weeks but not available to start to work in the next 2 weeks, or b) found a job to start within less than 3 months' time and are not available to start to work in the next 2 weeks', or c) found a job to start in more than 3 months' time and are not available to start to work in the next 2 weeks.
    • People available to work but not seeking are people neither employed nor unemployed who want to work and, a) are not actively seeking work during the last 4 weeks and are available to start to work in the next 2 weeks, or b) were passively seeking work during the last 4 weeks and are available to start to work in the next 2 weeks, or c) found a job that will start in more than 3 months' time and are available to start to work in the next 2 weeks.
  • To allow comparisons between these 4 groups, which do not all belong to the labour force, the concept of "extended labour force" is used. It includes people in the labour force (unemployed and employed) and in the potential additional labour force (the 2 categories outside the labour force, i.e. those available but not seeking, and those seeking but not available).

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