21.10.2022

EUROSTAT REPORTS A DECLINE IN YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT FOR 2021

The youth unemployment rate (people aged 15 to 29) in the EU has fallen to 13 percent in 2021, down from 13.3 percent in 2020, Eurostat reports.

The Covid crisis and related measures have disproportionately affected young people in terms of unemployment, most notably in 2020 when the youth unemployment rate rose by 1.4 percentage points and the overall unemployment rate by 0.4 percentage points point. In 2021, however, youth unemployment fell slightly more (-0.3 percentage points from 2020) than the general unemployment rate (-0.1 percentage points from 7.1 to 7 percent in 2021).

Excluding the regions for which the data is for 2019 (mostly in Germany), the lowest unemployment rate in 2021 was recorded in the eastern regions of the EU: four regions in the Czech Republic, including the South West, which has the low registered unemployment among Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) level 2 regions - 3.7 per cent, three regions in Hungary (including Budapest Metropolitan Region - 4.8 per cent) and Greater Poland Voivodeship in Poland (4 per cent).

The highest unemployment rate was recorded in Southern Europe. In 23 regions, 30 percent or more of the workforce aged 15 to 29 were unemployed. At the top of the ranking are six peripheral or remote regions with over 40 percent youth unemployment: Ciudad Autónoma de Ceuta (56 percent), Ciudad Autónoma de Melilla (41.9 percent) - both in Spain, Greek Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (45.1 percent) and Western Macedonia (42.3 percent), Mayotte (43 percent) in France and Sicily (40.1 percent) in Italy.

The youth unemployment rate (13 per cent) was almost double the overall unemployment rate (7 per cent) in 2021 and higher than the overall unemployment rate (for people aged 15-74) in each of the 192 Level 2 regions of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistical Purposes for which data are available.

In nearly half (46.4 percent) of these 192 regions, the youth unemployment rate was at least twice as high as the overall unemployment rate. The highest ratio between these two indicators is registered in Vest, Romania, where youth unemployment is 3.5 times higher than general unemployment. A relatively high ratio (2.8 or 2.9 times higher) was reported in Basilicata and Molise in southern Italy and the province of Flemish Brabant in Belgium.

Regarding the level of total unemployment in the regions of level 2 of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistical Purposes in 2021, the highest level was reported in the southern and outermost regions of the EU. Regional unemployment at a level of at least 14.5 percent was recorded in nine out of 13 regions of Greece (the exceptions being the metropolitan region of Attica, the Peloponnese, the Ionian Islands and the North Aegean), eight regions in Spain, four remote regions of France and four regions from southern Italy.

The lowest level was recorded in Central Moravia and Prague in the Czech Republic, Central Transdanubia and Western Transdanubia in Hungary, Warsaw Metropolitan, Wielkopolska and Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland - all with unemployment rates in the range of 2.1 to 2.3 percent.