Labour market flows in Q1 2026

Between the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first quarter of 2026, 3 million unemployed people aged 15-74 in the EU found a job (22.9% of all unemployed in the fourth quarter of 2025). During this period, 7.1 million (53.2%) remained unemployed and 3.2 million unemployed people (23.9%) transitioned out of the labour force.

This information comes from recently published data on labour market flows in the first quarter of 2026. The article presents a handful of findings from the more detailed Statistics Explained article.

Source dataset: lfsi_long_q

The visual and the 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 2 quarters, while the arrows indicate the number of people moving from one status to another.

Source dataset: lfsi_long_q

Of all those in employment in the fourth quarter of 2025, 2.5 million (1.2%) became unemployed in the first quarter of 2026, and 4.4 million (2.1%) transitioned out of the labour force.

From those counted as out of the labour force in the fourth quarter of 2025, 4.2 million (3.7%) moved into employment in the first quarter of 2026 and 3.8 million (3.3%) transitioned into unemployment.