Between the third and the fourth quarter of 2021, 3.6 million unemployed people in the EU (24.6% of all unemployed in the third quarter of 2021) found a job. During this period, 7.4 million (51%) remained unemployed and 3.5 million (24.5%) became economically inactive.
Of all those in employment in the third quarter of 2021, 2.5 million (1.3%) became unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 5.8 million (2.9%) transitioned into economic inactivity.
Source dataset: lfsi_long_q (including Member States' data)
Of those counted as economically inactive in the third quarter of 2021, 5.5 million (4.7%) moved into employment in the fourth quarter of 2021 and 3.8 million (3.2%) transitioned into unemployment.
This information comes from recently published data on labor market flows in the fourth quarter of 2021. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.
Source dataset: lfsi_long_q (including Member States' data)
The graphic and table give an overview of all possible transitions and show the changes in labor market status. In the graphic, the figures for employment, unemployment, and inactivity refer to the number of people remaining in each status between the two quarters. The grey arrows indicate the direction of net flows.
In the EU, the employment rate of people aged 20-64 stood at 74.0% in the fourth quarter of 2021, which represents an increase of 0.5 percentage points (pp) compared with the third quarter of 2021.
The labour market slack, which comprises all people who have an unmet need for employment and of which one of the main components is unemployment, amounted to 12.3% of the extended labour force aged 20-64 in the fourth quarter of 2021, down from 12.8% in the third quarter 2021 (-0.5 pp).
This information comes from data on the labour market in the fourth quarter of 2021 published by Eurostat today. This article presents only a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.
Source datasets: lfsi_emp_q and lfsi_sla_q
Changes in the employment rate between the third and the fourth quarter of 2021 varied across the EU Member States. The highest increases were recorded in Malta (+1.8 pp), Greece (+1.5 pp), Estonia (+1.3 pp), Ireland (+1.2 pp) as well as in Croatia (+1.0 pp).
While employment rose in 21 EU Member States, it remained stable in Portugal and Slovakia, and decreased in Lithuania (-0.1 pp), Luxembourg (-0.3 pp), Slovenia (-0.4 pp) and Latvia (-0.6 pp).
Source dataset: lfsi_emp_q