By 2020 the share of employed graduates (20 to 34 year-olds) having left education and training no more than three years before the reference year should be at least 82% (OJ C 169, 15.6.2012).
The indicator below is the share of employed graduates, i.e. the share of the employed population calculated among those aged between 20 and 34 years old who graduated 1, 2 and 3 years before the reference year and who are not enrolled in any further education or training activity.
Figure 32: Employment rate of recent graduates (%)
Source: Eurostat, EU labour force survey.
Key points
In 2016 the EU average employment rate for recent graduates was 78.2%, about 4 percentage points below the EU 2020 target of 82%. The highest rate was reported by Malta (96.6%), followed by Germany (90.2%) and the Netherlands (90.1%). In contrast, Greece (49.2%) and Italy (52.9%) had the lowest rates in 2016.
Between 2010 and 2016, the employment rate for recent graduates in the EU increased sligthly, by 0.8 percentage points. This EU average change covers quite large differences between Member States: over the same period, Latvia reported the largest rise (by 18.0 percentage points) in the employment rate for recent graduates, while Greece experienced the sharpest drop (by 9.4 percentage points).
Among the non-EU countries considered, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia had a low employment rate of recent graduates, at 46.9% in 2016 (below the rate in Greece). By contrast, Iceland (94.7%) and Norway (90.1%) had high employment rates for recent graduates (comparable to the highest rates in the EU).
Table 32: Employment rate of recent graduates (%)
Arrows ↗ or ↘ signal a positive or negative trend based on more than two data points and of magnitude 0.1 per year or more. Trends based on more than two data points but of smaller magnitude are indicated by →; trends based on two points only are marked ▪. Trends are estimated by means of regression models.
The 2014 “b” flags in the Eurostat online tables have been ignored on the basis of other relevant Eurostat metadata.
(b) Break after 2010. Therefore baseline data not included. (u) Eurostat: "low reliability". (z) Eurostat: "not applicable". (e) Eurostat: "estimated".
Source: Eurostat, EU labour force survey.
Data insights details
