Unemployment trends in the European Union Member States, December 2025

Released: 3 February 2026

In December 2025 (based on seasonally adjusted data), the unemployment rate in the European Union was 5.9%, the same as a month earlier and a year earlier. Unemployment was lowest in Czechia (3.1%), in Poland and Malta (3.2% in both), while it was highest in Finland (10.2%) and Spain (10.0%).

In December 2025, the unemployment rate¹ in Hungary was 4.5%, which was 0.1 percentage points higher than both a year earlier and the previous month. The Hungarian unemployment rate was the eighth lowest in the EU – along with Croatia – placing the country in the most favourable third of the member states’ ranking. Among the V4 countries, the unemployment rate was higher than in Hungary in Slovakia (5.8%), and lower in Czechia and Poland (3.1% and 3.2% respectively).

The number of unemployed people in Hungary – based on seasonally adjusted data – was 216 thousand in December 2025. In the period October to December 2025, the average duration of job search increased from 11.9 months to 12.7 months compared with a year earlier, while the share of long‑term unemployed (at least one year) rose from 34% to 36%.

According to the administrative data of the National Employment Service, by the end of December 2025 the number of registered jobseekers decreased by 2.1% compared to the previous month, and decreased by 2.2% to 216 thousand compared with a year earlier.

The December 2025 forecast of the National Bank of Hungary puts the unemployment rate at 4.8% in 2026 and 4.5% in 2027. According to OECD calculations, a slow decline can be expected from the third quarter of 2025, with the rate projected at 4.2% for 2026 as a whole and 4.0% for 2027. Trading Economics forecasts² that the domestic unemployment rate will decrease from 4.4% to 4.0% between the first and third quarters of 2026, while the IMF projects a rate of 4.2% for 2026 as a whole and 4.0% for 2027.