Unemployment trends in the European Union Member States, October 2025

Released: 8 December 2025

In October 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 0.2 percentage points higher than the previous year's value. Unemployment was lowest in Malta (3.1%), Czechia and Poland (3.2% in both), highest in Spain (10.5%) and Finland (9.8%).

In October 2025, the unemployment rate¹ in Hungary was 4.5%, which was the same as the figure for both the previous year and the previous month. The Hungarian unemployment rate was the eighth lowest in the EU, placing Hungary 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 in Hungary, based on seasonally adjusted data , was 221 thousand in October 2025. In the period August to October 2025, the average duration of job search decreased from 12.1 months to 12.0 months compared to a year earlier, and the share of long-term unemployed (at least one year) fell from 34% to 33%.

According to the administrative data of the National Employment Service, by the end of October 2025 the number of registered jobseekers increased by 0.3% compared to the previous month, and decreased by 2.4% to 221 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. From the third quarter of 2025, the OECD forecast is for a slow decline to 4.4% for 2025 as a whole and 4.2% 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 IMF forecasts a rate of 4.3% for 2025 as a whole and 4.2% for 2026.