Euro area
Euro area desk: EMU aggregate first; Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, United Kingdom and United States alongside.
−0.32 pp
As of 2025 | % of population ages 15+
| Year | Value |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 56.97% |
| 2024 | 57.29% |
| 2023 | 57.41% |
| 2022 | 57.14% |
| 2021 | 56.60% |
| 2020 | 56.14% |
| 2019 | 57.00% |
| 2018 | 56.90% |
| 2017 | 56.83% |
| 2016 | 56.69% |
| 2015 | 56.65% |
| 2014 | 56.72% |
| 2013 | 56.82% |
| 2012 | 56.84% |
| 2011 | 56.58% |
| 2010 | 56.64% |
| 2009 | 56.71% |
| 2008 | 56.83% |
| 2007 | 56.60% |
| 2006 | 56.46% |
| 2005 | 56.13% |
| 2004 | 55.80% |
| 2003 | 55.66% |
| 2002 | 55.32% |
Labour force participation is the share of people ages 15 and over who are employed or unemployed (SL.TLF.CACT.ZS). It is not the unemployment rate. Latest: 56.97% in 2025.
A falling unemployment rate can coincide with people leaving the labour force. This series is the usual check. From 1990 to 2025 (36 years): mean 56.05%, median 56.52%; low 54.48% (1995), high 57.41% (2023).
Source: World Bank Open Data. Licence: CC BY 4.0 (terms).
This series is the labour-force participation rate for people aged 15 and over: the share who are either employed or unemployed and looking for work. The source is World Bank Open Data indicator SL.TLF.CACT.ZS, an ILO modelled estimate. It measures who is in the labour market, not what they earn, and it is not the same as the employment ratio: unemployed people count in the numerator here but not there.
Participation reflects retirement ages, education, caring responsibilities and social norms as well as job availability, so levels differ for reasons that have little to do with the unemployment rate. The series is modelled from national surveys and censuses and is revised periodically. Use the chart and range buttons to follow one economy and the ranked ledger to compare latest published years. Treat small cross-country gaps with caution, because the estimate carries uncertainty where survey coverage is thin. A fall can mean people left the labour force rather than lost work, so read it with the unemployment rate.
The euro-area desk places the EMU aggregate first. It is the only World Bank aggregate region kept in this build; other regional aggregates are dropped. Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States are shown alongside where the source covers them. The figures are the same World Bank ILO modelled estimates as the all-countries pages, filtered to this set, and are not recomputed for the desk. Taiwan appears only on the headline unemployment page, from the IMF World Economic Outlook.
Use the Country selector to move between desks, the Chart and Table tabs for two views of one dataset, and the range buttons to shorten the window. Each page names its indicator code and licence. The euro-area series is a weighted aggregate of member states, so it can move differently from any single member shown beside it.