Which EU Country Has the Highest Youth Unemployment Rate?

Key Takeaways

• Spain has the EU’s highest youth unemployment rate at 26.5% in 2024. A labor market split between easy-to-end temporary jobs and hard-to-end permanent ones concentrates job losses among young people.
• Germany’s youth unemployment rate is the lowest in the EU at 6.6%. Its dual apprenticeship system moves young people directly into paid training instead of open job-hunting.

EU Countries by Youth Unemployment Rate

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Learn something new about Germany every week and make informed decisions with confidence.

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Learn something new about Germany every week and make informed decisions with confidence.

Spain’s Split Labor Market Drives the EU’s Highest Youth Unemployment Rate

Spain’s youth unemployment rate reached 26.5% in 2024. That is the highest in the EU.

Spain’s labor market splits sharply between temporary jobs that are easy to end and permanent jobs that are hard to end. Employers can dismiss temporary workers quickly.

Employers rely on temporary contracts to add staff without taking on the higher cost of permanent roles. Young people entering the job market for the first time are usually the ones hired into those jobs.

Young Spaniards are usually the first to lose their jobs when the economy slows.

Spain’s transition rate from unemployment or a temporary job into permanent work also ranks among the lowest in the OECD. The OECD is a group of mostly wealthy countries that compares economic data and policy across its members.

Many young workers cycle through short-term contracts. Few ever reach a permanent job.

Germany’s Apprenticeship System Keeps Youth Unemployment Rate Low

Germany’s youth unemployment rate reached 6.6% in 2024. That is the lowest in the EU.

Which German states have the highest unemployment rates? ->

Roughly half of each generation finishing school enters Germany’s dual apprenticeship system instead of searching for a job directly. Apprentices split their time between paid work at a company and vocational school classes.

Germany’s training companies pay apprentices a wage throughout the program. They also cover the costs of the training.

Apprentices’ paid position counts as employment under the same labor force rules used across the EU. They are not job-hunting or counted as unemployed while they train.

Most apprentices move directly into skilled work once training ends. In 2019, Germany’s vocational training graduates aged 20 to 34 had a 93.4% employment rate.

By contrast, young people in Spain must search for work entirely on their own from the start.