Luxembourg sees largest employment increase in the EU during Q4 of 2024

Employment rose in 15 EU countries during the final quarter of 2024, with the biggest increase recorded in Luxembourg, according to a Eurostat study published on Friday.

Across the European Union, 75.9% of people aged 20 to 64 were employed during Q4 of 2024 – the same rate of employment as in Q3.

At the same time, 10.8% of Europeans aged 20 to 64 were registered as unemployed or otherwise having “an unmet need for employment” at the end of the year. That rate dropped by 0.1 percentage point compared to Q3.

According to data released on Friday by the European statistics agency Eurostat, the employment rate rose in 15 EU member states between the third and fourth quarters. The biggest growth was seen in Luxembourg and Greece, where the proportion of people in work grew by 0.8 percentage points. They were followed by Lithuania, Malta and Slovenia on 0.5% labour market growth.

The employment rate was stable in Estonia and Hungary but dropped in the remaining ten member states – led by Ireland, where the employment rate took a 0.6% hit between the third and fourth quarters.

The EU employment rate took a major hit from 2009 onwards due to the economic crisis and continued to slide until the second quarter of 2013. It has grown consistently ever since – with the exception of large drops in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic heavily impacted the job market. Employment growth across the bloc was strongest in 2022 and 2023, and has slowly levelled off in the past two years.