Graduate Unemployment Varies Widely Across Europe

University degrees are supposed to give graduates an edge in the job market. But in an increasingly competitive economy, that's often far from guaranteed.

In Europe, the boost a bachelor's degree or master's degree gives to your CV can largely depend on where you live.

Our analysis of Eurostat employment data found that graduate unemployment is close to zero across much of central and eastern Europe.

In Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria, less than 1.5% of people aged 25 to 54 with tertiary education are unemployed.

But things are very different in places like North Macedonia, Turkey, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, where graduate unemployment is around 7%. Within the EU, Greece has the highest rate at roughly 6%.

Recent graduates don't fare much better in France (4.7%) and Spain (5.7%) either, where unemployment is well above the EU average of 3.6%, while both Italy and Germany sit around 3% each.

What are overall unemployment rates across the EU?

Although Spain is one of the EU’s fastest-growing economies, it also has the bloc’s highest unemployment rate, with more than 9% among people aged 25 to 54.

That’s even higher than non-members like Serbia (8.7%) and Turkey (7.5%), while the EU average across this age group is 5.4%, with Italy (6.6%) and France (6.1%) also above that mark.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Czech Republic (2.4%), Malta (2.5%), Poland (2.7%) and the Netherlands (2.9%) all keep unemployment below 3%, while Germany is not too far behind at under 4%.

How many young Europeans are completely inactive?

More than one in ten young EU citizens aged 15-29 are NEETs, meaning they are not in education, nor employed or in training.

Again, there are considerable differences across Europe, ranging from 5% in the Netherlands to a remarkable 19% in Romania.

Rates above the EU average of 11% were reported in 10 member states. Romania aside, Italy, Bulgaria, and Greece recorded the highest percentages with more than 13% of youngsters stuck in a career or educational limbo.

On a positive note, the average across the bloc dropped by more than 4% over the past decade, with the largest NEET decreases happening Italy (-12pp) and Greece (-10.pp), while a slight growth in inactive youth was reported by a group of German-speaking countries, namely Germany (+1.0 pp), Luxembourg (+1.2 pp) and Austria (+1.6 pp).

Aside from the stark geographical differences, there is no strong single sociodemographic profile of NEETs; the percentages are similar between men and women, with female youngsters slightly more likely to be inactive (12% vs 10%).

The picture is also fairly consistent across suburbs, cities and rural areas, with rural residents (12%) marginally more likely to be NEETs.