Unemployment trends in the European Union Member States, September 2025

Released: 31 October 2025

In September 2025 (based on seasonally adjusted data), the unemployment rate in the European Union was 6.0%, which was the same as the previous month's value, and 0.1 percentage points higher than the previous year's value. Unemployment was lowest in Czechia and Malta (3.0% in both), highest in Spain (10.5%) and Finland (9.8%).

In September 2025, the unemployment rate¹ in Hungary was 4.5%, which was the same as the previous year's figure, and 0.2 percentage points higher than in August 2025. The Hungarian unemployment rate was the eighth lowest in the EU, placing Hungary in the most favourable third of the member states. Among the V4 countries, the unemployment rate was higher than in Hungary in Slovakia (5.5%) and lower in Czechia and Poland (3.0% and 3.2% respectively).

The number of unemployed in Hungary, based on seasonally adjusted data, was 219 thousand in September 2025. In the period July to September 2025, the average duration of job search decreased from 11.9 months to 11.2 months compared to a year earlier, and the share of long-term unemployed (at least one year) fell from 34% to 29%.

According to the administrative data of the National Employment Service, by the end of September 2025 the number of registered jobseekers decreased by 1.0% compared to the previous month, and decreased by 3.6% to 220 thousand compared to a year earlier.

The September 2025 forecast of the National Bank of Hungary puts the unemployment rate at 4.6% in 2025 and 4.8% in 2026. Following a rate of 4.3% in the third quarter of 2025, the OECD forecast is for a slow decline to 4.3% for 2025 as a whole and 3.9% for 2026. Trading Economics forecasts² the domestic unemployment rate to rise to 4.7% by the fourth quarter of 2025, and then moderate to 4.4% by the first quarter of 2026, while the IMF forecasts a rate of 4.3% for 2025 as a whole and 4.2% for 2026.