Euro area unemployment at 6.2% in World Economy News 02/04/2026 Overview In February 2026, the euro area seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.2%, up from 6.1% in January 2026 and down from 6.3% in February 2025. The EU unemployment rate was 5.9% in February 2026, stable compared with January 2026 and down from 6.0% in February 2025. These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. Eurostat estimates that 13.118 million persons in the EU, of whom 10.919 million in the euro area, were unemployed in February 2026. Compared with January 2026, unemployment increased by 137 thousand in the EU and by 93 thousand in the euro area. Compared with February 2025, unemployment decreased by 18 thousand in the EU and by 124 thousand in the euro area. Youth unemployment In February 2026, 2.957 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU, of whom 2.373 million were in the euro area. In February 2026, the youth unemployment rate was 15.3% in the EU, up from 15.2% in the previous month, and 14.9% in the euro area, stable compared with January 2026. Compared with January 2026, youth unemployment increased by 18 thousand in the EU and by 5 thousand in the euro area. Compared with February 2025, youth unemployment increased by 5 thousand in the EU and decreased by 8 thousand in the euro area. Unemployment by sex In February 2026, the unemployment rate for women was 6.1% in the EU, up from 6.0% in January 2026, and the unemployment rate for men was 5.7%, stable compared with the previous month. In the euro area, the unemployment rate for women was 6.4%, up from 6.3% in January 2026, and the unemployment rate for men was 6.0%, also stable compared with the previous month. Additional labour market indicators The estimates in this News Release are based on the globally used International Labour Organisation (ILO) standard definition of unemployment, which counts as unemployed people without a job who have been actively seeking work in the last four weeks and are available to start work within the next two weeks. To capture in full the labour market situation, the data on unemployment have been complemented by additional indicators, e.g. underemployed part-time workers, persons seeking work but not immediately available and persons available to work but not seeking, released together with EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) data for the fourth quarter of 2025. EU-LFS data for the first quarter of 2026 will be released on 12 June 2026. Source: Eurostat 2026-04-02 hellenicshippingnews... window.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-US'}; (function(w, d, s) { function go(){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], load = function(url, id) { if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;} js = d.createElement(s); js.src = url; js.id = id; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }; load('//connect.facebook.net/en/all.js#xfbml=1', 'fbjssdk'); load('https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js', 'gplus1js'); load('//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js', 'tweetjs'); } if (w.addEventListener) { w.addEventListener("load", go, false); } else if (w.attachEvent) { w.attachEvent("onload",go); } }(window, document, 'script')); tweet Share