The EU’s official statistics agency, Eurostat, reported that 4.48 million EU citizens aged 15 to 29 were unemployed last year, the lowest since 2009. Broken down by nation, their map shows an exceptionally low rate in Central and East Europe by comparison with Iberia, Italy, France, Scandinavia and Greece. The latter is the only country with a rate over 10%.
The lowest rate in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) was 2% in Czechia, followed by Hungary and Poland. Slovenia had 4.3% youth employment in 2022, just below Lithuania with 4.5%. Other CEE countries with levels below the EU-27 average of 6.3% were Austria 5.2%, Slovakia 5.5%, Latvia 5.9% and Romania 6%. Estonia was one of the few countries to see a rise in youth unemployment, up from 6.4% in 2021 to 6.8% in 2022.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addressed the subject of youth unemployment in a speech at the 15th Congress of the European Trade Union Confederation on Thursday, 25th May.
“We are complaining about the lack of skilled personnel? Well, let us just invest adequately in this huge potential that is out there. Young people are our future, let us invest in them.”
