The labor market in the EU surprised positively. Poland is among the leaders despite the “cooling” economic situation
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the euro area was 6.2% in December 2025, down from 6.3%. recorded in November and was the same as in the same period of 2024, the EU statistical office Eurostat reported on Friday morning. This reading is lower than the forecasted 6.3%. The unemployment rate in the entire European Union (EU) was 5.9 percent, which was the same as in November (downward correction from 6 percent) and a year earlier.
Eurostat estimates that in November 2025 there were 13.043 million unemployed people across the EU, including 10.892 million in the euro area. Over the course of a month, this number decreased by 94,000. in the EU and by 61 thousand in the euro zone (year-on-year this means an increase by 71,000 in the EU and a decrease by 5,000 in the euro zone).
Unemployment in the EU among young people (under 25) was 14.7%. and 14.3 percent in the euro zone, i.e. it decreased slightly. There were 2.857 million young people unemployed in EU countries, of which 2.257 million in the euro area, which means a decline in both regions both on a monthly and annual basis.
The highest total unemployment at the end of 2025, this time in Finlandwhere it amounted to 10.2 percent. It was also clearly above average, among others: in Spain (10%), Sweden (9%), France (7.7%) and Greece (7.5%).
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Eurostat, own study
The Czech Republic had the lowest unemployment rate in the EU in November (3.1%), and Poland and Malta were ex aequo in second place (3.2%).. Both in Poland and in our southern neighbors, the unemployment rate increased slightly year on year: in Poland by 0.4 percentage points and in the Czech Republic by 0.2 percentage points.
See also: Historic declines and a growing generation gap. This is how the population of Poland has changed
The number of unemployed people has increased: at the end In 2025, there were 576 thousand of them, which means stabilization compared to October and November, but an increase year on year by 72 thousand. In absolute terms, the most unemployed were in Spain (2.513 million), France (2.442 million), Germany (1.683 million) and Italy (1.426 million).
Eurostat shows lower unemployment than the Central Statistical Office. Why this difference?
The EU office Eurostat uses the LFS methodology, which is a different methodology than the one used by the Central Statistical Office and Polish labor offices. LFS understands unemployment as people who are actively looking for a job but have trouble finding one. Therefore, it does not include people who are not actually looking for employment (and who need unemployed status, e.g. for free health services).
See also: The end of good news from employment offices? This indicator warns of changes in the market
More precisely, the BAEL measures the harmonized unemployment rate as the percentage of people aged 15-74 who are unemployed, able to take up employment in the next two weeks, and who have been actively looking for a job in the last weeks in relation to all economically active people in a given country.
In December 2025, the registered unemployment rate was 5.7%. compared to 5.1 percent a year ago – the Central Statistical Office reported a few days ago. This means maintaining this indicator at the increased level we have been dealing with for several months. The bottom was recorded in May 2025, when unemployment, according to the Central Statistical Office, was exactly 5%.
The labor market in Poland is cooling down, which is indicated by several factors, such as: weakening wage growth, the number of employees and vacancies, and the above-mentioned increase in unemployment. Although this is largely due to regulatory factors: The reform of labor offices came into force in Junewhich assumes, among others, the possibility of registering farmers or registration according to the place of residence, and not, as before, according to the place of residence, which makes it easier to register with “intermediaries” and made the unemployment rate more realistic (in this case, it increased). We wrote more about this HERE.
