Unemployment trends in the European Union Member States, July 2025

Released: 12 September 2025

In July 2025 (based on seasonally adjusted data),  the unemployment rate in the European Union was 5.9%, down 0.1 percentage points from both the previous month and the previous year. Unemployment was lowest in Malta and Czechia (2.6% and 2.8% respectively), highest in Spain (10.4%) and Finland (9.5%).

In July 2025, the unemployment rate¹ in Hungary was 4.3%, which was the same as a year earlier and 0.1 percentage points lower than in June 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 (5.4%) and lower in Czechia and Poland (2.8% and 3.1%, respectively).

The number of unemployed in Hungary, based on seasonally adjusted data,  was 212 thousand in July 2025. In the period May to July 2025, the average duration of job search increased from 9.7 months to 11.5 months compared to a year earlier, and the share of long-term unemployed (at least one year) fell from 35% to 29%.

According to the administrative data of the National Employment Service, by the end of July 2025 the number of registered jobseekers increased by 0.6% compared to the previous month, and decreased by 1.4% to 221 thousand compared to a year earlier.

The June 2025 forecast of the National Bank of Hungary puts the unemployment rate at 4.5% in 2025 and 4.8% in 2026. Following a rate of 4.4% in the second 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 forecasts ² the domestic unemployment rate to rise to 4.7% by the fourth quarter of 2025 and then to fall to 4.0% by the first quarter of 2026, while the IMF forecasts a rate of 4.6% for 2025 as a whole and 4.2% for 2026.