Unemployment trends in the European Union Member States, March 2025

Released: 8 May 2025

In March 2025 (based on seasonally adjusted data),  the unemployment rate in the European Union was 5.8%, the same as a month earlier and fell by 0.2 percentage points compared with March 2024. Unemployment was lowest in Czechia (2.6%), Poland (2.7%) and Malta (2.8%), highest in Spain (10.9%), Finland (9.1%) and Greece (9.0%).

In March 2025, the unemployment rate¹ in Hungary was 4.2%, 0.1 percentage points lower than the figures for March 2024 and for one month earlier. In terms of unemployment rate, Hungary was ranked 9th best among the Member States. Among the V4, unemployment was higher than in Hungary in Slovakia (5.0%) and lower in Czechia and Poland (2.6% and 2.7% respectively).

The number of unemployed in Hungary, based on seasonally adjusted data,  was 205 thousand in March 2025. In the period January to March 2025, the average duration of job search increased from 8.9 months to 13.1 months compared to a year earlier, and the share of long-term unemployed (at least one year) rose from 33% to 37%.

According to the administrative data of the National Employment Service, by the end of March 2025 the number of registered jobseekers increased by 0.1% compared to the previous month, and decreased by 1.5% to 233 thousand compared to a year earlier.

According to the March 2025 forecast of the National Bank of Hungary, the unemployment rate will be between 4.2–4.3% in 2025 and 3.6–4.1% in 2026. The OECD forecast expects a slow decline from the first quarter of 2025 – starting from a base estimated at 4.6% – and estimates the rate at 4.5% for 2025 as a whole and 4.0% for 2026. Trading Economics forecasts² 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.