Romania has highest unemployment rate in Europe among youth

Romania has become the EU country with the highest unemployment rate among young people under 25 (26.3%), according to official Eurostat data published in December 2024 and analyzed by the Social Monitor, a project of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Romania.

Thus, Romania surpassed states such as Spain and Greece, where youth unemployment has always been a constant problem.

In December 2024, in Romania, the unemployment rate across all age groups was relatively low, at 5.7% of the active population, slightly below the European average of 5.8%. But the situation is different among young people under 25, where Romania became the European "champion" in December 2024, with an unemployment rate of 26.3%, followed by countries where unemployment is generally high, such as Spain (25.2%), Sweden (23.5%) or Greece (22.5%), the EU average of youth unemployment being 14.6%.

Romania also has very poor results in the NEET indicator - which shows the percentage of young people under 29 who are neither employed nor enrolled in education - having the highest rate in the EU in 2024 (19.4%), compared to the European average of 11%.

The figures show that a national social and economic policy specifically dedicated to young people is needed, addressing both the issues of early school leaving and the quality of education, introducing financial support measures for students and teachers where needed, and the issues of skills and "employability" of young people, adapting the school curriculum to the needs of the labor market. In parallel, a public communication campaign is also needed to combat employers' reluctance to recruit young people under 25.

(Photo: Radub85/ Dreamstime)