Youth unemployment rate

Since 2013 the youth unemployment rate has fallen in the EU from a peak of 24.0 % in February 2013 to 16.9 % in July 2017. This improvement can be seen in Figure 1 that compares the situation in the regions in 2012 and 2016. Youth unemployment is however still higher than before the crisis, when it reached a low of 15.1 % in February 2008. Moreover, the most recent data from Eurostat shows that unemployment is above the EU average in Greece (46.6 %), Spain (39.3 %), France (21.7 %), Croatia (26.3 %), Italy (34.0 %), Cyprus (29.6 %), Luxembourg (18.5 %), Portugal (23.7%), Romania (20.4 %), Slovakia (18.2 %), Finland (20.4 %) and Sweden (17.6 %). The situation in Greece, Spain and Italy remains especially worrying.