In 2025, the EU employment rate of people aged 20-64 rose to 76.1%, the highest level recorded since the series began in 2009, bringing it to just 1.9 percentage points below the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan target for 2030 (78.0%).

Almost half (47.1%) of all EU regions, classified at level 2 of the nomenclature of territorial units for statistics (NUTS), had already reached or surpassed this target in 2025. These 115 regions formed distinct clusters, with high concentrations in Czechia (all 8 regions), Denmark (4 out of 5 regions), Germany (34 out of 38 regions), Ireland (all 3 regions), Hungary (6 out of 8 regions), the Netherlands (all 12 regions), Portugal (7 out of 9 regions), Slovakia (3 out of 4 regions) and Sweden (all 8 regions), as well as Estonia, Cyprus and Malta, which are single regions at this level.

In 6 regions, employment rates surpassed 85.0%: 

Warszawski stołeczny, the Polish capital region (86.9%);
Praha, the Czech capital region (86.0%);
the archipelago of Åland in Finland (85.5%);
Utrecht in the Netherlands (85.4%);
Oberbayern in the southern Germany (85.1%);
Mellersta Norrland in the north of Sweden (85.0%). 

Source dataset: lfst_r_lfe2emprt

Around a quarter of all EU regions – 64 out of 244 regions – recorded employment rates below 74.0%. This group included: 

11 out of 27 French regions, including all 5 outermost regions; Mayotte and Guyane recorded the lowest employment rates in the EU, at 36.9% and 50.0%, respectively;
11 out of 21 Italian regions, almost all located in central and southern Italy, with the lowest rates observed in Calabria (50.3%), Campania (50.8%) and Sicilia (51.4%);
11 out of 13 Greek regions;
11 out of 19 Spanish regions;
7 of the 8 Romanian regions.

The capital regions with employment rates below 74.0% were Région de Bruxelles Capitale / Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest in Belgium, Lazio in Italy, Wien in Austria, Attiki in Greece and Luxembourg. 

Would you like to know more about labour market in EU regions? 

You can explore the labour market sections in the Eurostat regional yearbook – 2026 edition and in the interactive publication Regions in Europe.