Labour market slack
Unmet demand for work among people aged 15 to 74: the unemployed, part-time workers who want to work more hours, people available to work but not seeking, and people seeking work but not immediately available, as a percentage of the extended labour force (the labour force plus the last two groups).
Wider than the unemployment rate, which counts only the first group over the labour force. From the EU labour force survey. Eurostat flags series breaks (most in 2021, under the new framework regulation for social statistics); they are stored as status break.
Key facts
- Labour market slack in the European Union (27) was 11.8% in 2025, according to Eurostat, European Commission.
- Finland had the highest labour market slack of 27 EU countries in 2025, at 19.5%, and Malta the lowest, at 4.9%. Source: Eurostat, European Commission.
- Published for 28 places, with figures from 2009 to 2025.
Rankings
EU countries by labour market slack, 2025
Places with data
World, EU and euro area
Countries
- Germany
- France
- Italy
- Spain
- Poland
- Romania
- Netherlands
- Belgium
- Czechia
- Portugal
- Finland
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Latvia
- Cyprus
- Estonia
Use this data in your AI agent
Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:
Which places have the highest labour market slack? Use official data and cite it.
rank_places {"indicator":"labour_market_slack_share","level":"country","within":"European Union (27)"}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=labour_market_slack_share&level=country&within=European%20Union%20(27)