The EU seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 7.5% in December 2020, stable compared with November 2020 and up from 6.5% in December 2019. The euro area unemployment rate was 8.3%, also stable compared with November 2020 and up from 7.4% in December 2019.
These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Eurostat estimates that 16.000 million men and women in the EU, of whom 13.671 million in the euro area, were unemployed in December 2020. Compared with November 2020, the number of persons unemployed increased by 67 000 in the EU and by 55 000 in the euro area. Compared with December 2019, unemployment rose by 1.951 million in the EU and by 1.516 million in the euro area.
In December 2020, 3.138 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU, of whom 2.590 million were in the euro area. In December 2020, the youth unemployment rate was 17.8% in the EU and 18.5% in the euro area, up from 17.5% and 18.1% respectively in the previous month. Compared with November 2020, youth unemployment increased by 41 000 in the EU and by 36 000 in the euro area. Compared with December 2019, youth unemployment increased by 438 000 in the EU and by 353 000 in the euro area.
In December 2020, the unemployment rate for women was 7.9% in the EU, stable compared with November 2020. The unemployment rate for men was 7.1% in December 2020, also stable compared with November 2020. In the euro area, the unemployment rate for women remained stable at 8.8% in December 2020 while it increased from 7.8% to 7.9% for men.
These estimates are based on the globally used International Labor Organization 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. The COVID-19 outbreak and the measures applied to combat it has triggered a sharp increase in the number of claims for unemployment benefits across the EU. At the same time, a significant part of those who had registered in unemployment agencies was no longer actively looking for a job or no longer available for work, for instance, if they had to take care of their children. This leads to discrepancies in the number of registered unemployed and those measured as unemployed according to the ILO definition.
To capture in full the unprecedented labor market situation triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak, the data on unemployment has 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 LFS data for the third quarter of 2020.
