Unemployment trends in the European Union Member States, November 2025

Released: 10 January 2026

In November 2025 (based on seasonally adjusted data), the unemployment rate in the European Union was 6.0%, the same as a month earlier and 0.2 percentage points higher than a year before. Unemployment was lowest in Malta (3.1%) and in Czechia and Poland (3.2% in both), while it was highest in Spain (10.4%) and Finland (10.1%).

In November 2025, the unemployment rate¹ in Hungary was 4.4%, which was 0.1 percentage points lower than both a year earlier and the previous month. The Hungarian unemployment rate was the eighth lowest in the EU, 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 (5.6%), and lower in Czechia and Poland (3.2% in both).

The number of unemployed people in Hungary – based on seasonally adjusted data – was 215 thousand in November 2025. In the period September to November 2025, the average duration of job search increased from 11.6 months to 12.3 months compared with a year earlier, while the share of long‑term unemployed (at least one year) rose from 33% to 34%.

According to the administrative data of the National Employment Service, by the end of November 2025 the number of registered jobseekers remained essentially unchanged compared with the previous month, and decreased by 1.9% to 221 thousand compared with a year earlier.

The December 2025 forecast of the National Bank of Hungary puts the unemployment rate at 4.5% in 2025 and 4.8% in 2026. According to OECD calculations, a slow decline can be expected from the third quarter of 2025, with the rate projected at 4.4% for 2025 as a whole and 4.2% for 2026. 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 4.3% for 2025 as a whole and 4.2% for 2026.