Between the first and the second quarter of 2023, 3.1 million unemployed people in the EU (24.0% of all unemployed in the first quarter of 2023) found a job. During this period, 6.7 million (51.4%) remained unemployed, and 3.2 million unemployed people (24.5%) transitioned out of the labour force.

This information comes from recently published data on labour market flows in the second quarter of 2023. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.
 

Infographic: transitions in the labour market status in the EU (Q1 2023-Q2 2023; population aged 15-74, millions)

Source dataset: lfsi_long_q (including Member States' data)

The visual and table give an overview of all possible transitions and show the changes in labour market status. In the visual, the figures for employment, unemployment and out of the labour force refer to the number of people remaining in each status between the two quarters. The grey arrows indicate the direction of net flows (see methodological notes). 

Infographic: transitions in the labour market, EU, Q1 2023-Q2 2023 (population 15.74, as % of initial status)

Source dataset: lfsi_long_q (including Member States' data)
 

Of all those in employment in the first quarter of 2023, 2.5 million (1.2%) became unemployed in the second quarter of 2023, and 5.2 million (2.5%) transitioned out of the labour force.

From those counted as out of the labour force in the first quarter of 2023, 4.7 million (4.0%) moved into employment in the second quarter of 2023 and 3.7 million (3.2%) transitioned into unemployment.
 

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Methodological notes

  • The labour market flows published from 2021 onwards are based on the EU Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS) under the Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 on European statistics relating to persons and households, based on data at the individual level collected from samples. More details about the Regulation can be found here.
  • The figures are based on seasonally adjusted data.
  • Metadata on labour market transitions.

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