In March 2024, the youth unemployment rate in Italy was 22.8 percent. The problem of unemployment in Italy became critical in the first years of the financial crisis, which started in 2008. Although the labor market crisis seriously affected the entire Italian working population, it particularly impacted the youngest part of the labor force. Between 2008 and 2014, the share of unemployed individuals aged between 15 and 24 years increased by more than 15 percentage points. Despite a steady decline observed after 2014, youth unemployment still stood at almost 30 percent as of 2020. The effects of the 2011-2012 financial crisis: dream job versus harsh reality Newly graduated and often looking for a first job, young people are particularly vulnerable to stagnation in the labor market. Considering the difficulties in finding a job during and after the years of the financial crisis, about 48 percent of young Italians declared in 2018 that they would accept a job that does not meet their career aspiration. One fourth of the respondents stated that they would accept a monthly salary of 500 euros. Youth unemployment rate in the EU: a serious challenge for Spain and ItalyItaly was the country with the fifth-highest youth unemployment rate among the EU member states in August 2023. The country with the highest youth unemployment was Spain, where more than one out of four individuals were unemployed.

Boundless, the fully compliant Employer of Record platform, compiled and analysed the employment costs in 32 countries within Europe, including gross salary, social and health insurance contributions, income taxes, net pay and more.

To collect this data, Boundless leveraged their internal salary calculators, a resource developed and used by the Boundless Payroll team in collaboration with local payroll partners in each country. This approach enabled Boundless to capture the true costs associated with employing staff in each of the 32 countries, taking into account all applicable regional nuances, and ensure that the findings reflect the latest legal and economic conditions.

The statistic shows the seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate in EU member states as of November 2024. The source defines youth unemployment as unemployment of those younger than 25 years. In November 2024, the seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate in Spain was at 26.6 percent. Youth unemployment rate in EU member states Unemployment is a crucial economic factor for a country; youth unemployment is often examined separately because it tends to be higher than unemployment in older age groups. It comprises the unemployment figures of a country’s labor force aged 15 to 24 years old (i.e. the earliest point at which mandatory school education ends). Typically, teenagers and those in their twenties who are fresh out of education do not find jobs right away, especially if the country’s economy is experiencing difficulties, as can be seen above. Additionally, it also tends to be higher in emerging markets than in industrialized nations. Worldwide, youth unemployment figures have not changed significantly over the last decade, nor are they expected to improve in the next few years. Youth unemployment is most prevalent in the Middle East and North Africa, even though these regions report high unemployment figures regardless (Zimbabwe and Turkmenistan are among the countries with the highest unemployment rates in the world, for example), and are also highly populated areas with a rather weak infrastructure, compared to industrialized regions. In the European Union and the euro area, unemployment in general has been on the rise since 2008, which is due to the economic crisis which caused bankruptcy and financial trouble for many employers, and thus led to considerable job loss, less job offerings, and consequently, to a rise of the unemployment rate. Older workers are struggling to find new jobs despite their experience, and young graduates are struggling to find new jobs, because they have none. All in all, the number of unemployed persons worldwide is projected to rise, this is not down to the economic crisis alone, but also the industrial automation of processes previously performed by workers, as well as rising population figures.

Unemployment in the European Union has reached its low point in the twenty-first century in 2025. The share of the labour force out of work was slighly under 5.8 percent between January and March of that year, a marked decrease from its most recent peak of 7.8 percent in the Summer of 2020. While the jobs recovery has been strong in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic in the EU, this number is still far above the remarkably low rate in the United States, which has reached 4.3 percent in 2024. Nevertheless, this recent decline is a positive development for the EU countries, many of which have long suffered from chronic unemployment issues. In some regional labour markets in the EU, the issue is now less of people who can't find work, but employers who cannot find employees, leading to labour shortages. The sick men of Europe Several EU member states have long had high unemployment rates, with the large numbers of people in long-term unemployment being particularly concerning. Italy, France, Greece, Spain, and Portugal have all had double-digit unemployment rates for significant amounts of time during this period, with the ability of people to freely migrate to other EU countries for work only marginally decreasing this. While these countries have long dealt with these issues due to their declining legacy industries and the struggle of competing in a liberalized, globalized economy, their unemployment rates reached their highest points following the global financial crisis, great recession, and Eurozone crisis. These interconnected crises led to a period of prolonged stagnation in their economies, with unemployment reaching as high as 25 percent in Greece, the worst affected economy.