The employment rate reached a record level since the economic crisis in the third quarter of 2018 in the EU, with 239.3 million people employed, according to Eurostat.
For the entire EU, this rate stands at 73.2% in the third quarter of 2018.
In one year, nearly all Member States saw the share of their population in employment increase, except for two marginal declines in Luxembourg (-0.2% between the 3rd quarter of 2017 and the 3rd quarter of 2018) and Malta (-0.3%).
The top performer is Sweden (83.3%), followed by Germany (80.2%). They experienced an increase in their employment rates over one year of 0.5% and 0.7% respectively.
At the bottom of the ranking: Greece, which however surpasses the 60% mark (+0.7%), alongside Italy (63.3%), Croatia (65.8%), and Spain (67.6%).
France, on the other hand, is positioned in the middle of the ranking, with a rate of 71.6% (+0.8%).
This European increase is characterized by growth in permanent jobs, which rose by 2.7 million between the third quarters of 2017 and 2018. Full-time employment also grew during the same period, with 2.3 million additional workers, while part-time work remained stable.
The improvement affects all sectors except agriculture, notably the services sector, which recorded an additional 2.5 million people.
These figures should be compared with the unemployment rate, which measures the proportion of the active population seeking employment. This rate decreased by 0.6% compared to 2017 in the EU and the Eurozone, where it stood at 6.7% and 7.9% respectively in November 2018.
With the “Europe 2020” strategy adopted in 2010, the European Union set an employment target of 75% for the population aged 20 to 64.
