Labour market indicators

Get the latest available data presented in the format of the Economic Bulletin tables:

Labour markets All labour market time series

Most of the data described in this section are produced by the European Commission (mainly Eurostat) and national statistical authorities. Euro area results are obtained by aggregating data for individual countries. As far as possible, the data are harmonised and comparable. Statistics on GDP expenditure components, value added by economic activity, industrial production, retail sales and passenger car registrations are adjusted for the variations in the number of working days.

Statistics on employment are based on national accounts data under the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010). The employed are persons engaged in production and working at least one hour per week. Annual and quarterly employment data broken down by 6 branches of economic activities and by employment status (employees and self-employed) are available for most countries. The euro area and EU time series are aggregated by Eurostat by summing up the national data.

Statistics on unemployment are published by the European Commission (Eurostat) and follow ILO guidelines. Unemployed persons are defined as those aged 15 years and over who are without work, are available to start work within two weeks and have actively sought employment during the previous four weeks. It should be noted that this definition of unemployment can differ from those definitions used at the national level. Adult workers are defined as those 25 years old and over; those below 25 years of age are classified as youth workers.

Methodological information