In February 2025, the Euro area's labour market continued to strengthen, with the unemployment rate falling to 6.1 percent, its lowest level in over a year. This marked a slight improvement from January's 6.2 percent and a notable drop from 6.5 percent a year earlier, reflecting a steady economic rebound. Eurostat figures show that 10.58 million people were unemployed, 70,000 fewer than in January and 643,000 fewer than in February 2024, suggesting consistent progress in job creation.

However, the picture for young people remains mixed. While overall youth unemployment declined year-over-year by 85,000, the rate ticked up slightly month-over-month to 14.2 percent, indicating that young job seekers continue to face significant challenges. Gender disparities also persist: the unemployment rate for women remained steady at 6.4 percent, while the rate for men decreased to 5.9 percent, indicating a slow but ongoing improvement in male employment.

Amongst the larger euro area countries, the national unemployment rate fell in Italy (5.9 percent after 6.2 percent) and Spain (10.4 percent after 10.5 percent), while it rose in France (7.4 percent after 7.3 percent), but remained steady in Germany (3.5 percent). Overall, the Euro area appears to be on a cautious path toward labour market stability. Yet, the slight rise in youth unemployment signals that targeted interventions may still be needed to ensure inclusive gains across all age groups, leaving the RPI at minus 34 and the RPI-P at minus 28. This means that economic activities in the bloc remain well behind expectations.

No change from 6.2 percent is the call for February.

The unemployment rate measures the number of unemployed as a percentage of the labor force.

Unemployment data are closely monitored by the financial markets. These data give a comprehensive report on the state of the economy and its future direction. A rising unemployment rate can be a warning sign of hard times while a low rate can be a warning of inflation as wages are bid up to attract labor.

Unemployment data are expressed in both a numerical value and as a percentage of the labor force. Generally, the definition of those unemployed follows that of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It states that an unemployed person is one between the ages of 15 to 74 years of age who was not employed during the reference week, had actively sought work during the past four weeks and was ready to begin working immediately or within two weeks. The unemployment rate is the percentage of unemployed persons over the total number of active persons in the labor market. Active persons are those who are either employed or unemployed.

Eurostat provides an unemployment rate for each EU country as well as for the EMU and EU as a whole. It should be noted that the unemployment rate for a country will frequently differ with that reported by the national statistics agency. That is because of the varying interpretations of the ILO definition by member states and Eurostat.