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European Labour Market Barometer

The European labour market barometer provides an outlook for the development of the European labour market in the next three months. In November 2025, component A (unemployment) stands at 99.8 points; component B (employment) stands at 100.4 points; the European labour market barometer averages both components and stands at 100.1 points. Values above 100 signal a positive outlook, values below 100 signal a negative outlook.
European Labour Market Barometer in November 2025
Infographic: A line chart shows the European labour market barometer and its component A (unemployment) and component B (employment) as monthly time series from 2018 until 2025.
Time Series European Labour Market Barometer 2015 until November 2025

Accessible table of the time series of the European Labour Market Barometer

European Labour Market Barometer rises above 100 for the first time since mid-2023

The European Labour Market Barometer has climbed above the neutral mark of 100 points for the first time since mid-2023. The leading indicator of the European Network of Public Employment Services and the IAB rose by 0.3 points to 100.1 points in November compared with the previous month. Since the beginning of the year, the barometer has shown a tendency to recover. Both components rose in November – the unemployment component by 0.3 points to 99.8 points, and the employment component by 0.3 points to 100.4 points. Nevertheless, the unemployment component remains slightly pessimistic, and the employment component has been only slightly above 100 for 1.5 years. ‘The European Labour Market Barometer has left the low-pressure zone. However, this does not yet mean that the outlook is sunny,’ explains Enzo Weber, IAB head of forecast.

The time series of the European Labour Market Barometer, including its components for all 18 participating employment services, is available at www.iab.de/Presse/elmb-components. More information on the European Labour Market Barometer is available in our Magazine IAB-Forum: Launch of the “European Labour Market Barometer".

Run by the European Network of Public Employment Services and the Institute for Employment Research (IAB), the European Labour Market Barometer is based on a survey of the local or regional employment agencies in 18 PES services. A leading indicator of employment and unemployment in labour markets, the survey has been carried out jointly by the employment services and the IAB since June 2018. Agencies are asked to assess both the unemployment and employment outlook for the next three months, resulting in two components and one barometer for each PES. The European barometer is then derived from these national scores in the form of a weighted average.

Participating countries include: Belgium (German-speaking community, Wallonia), Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and Cyprus. Latvia has been participating since June 2025.

Taken from: Labour market barometer helps predict (un)employment trends | European Social Fund Plus (europa.eu)

Release Dates

  • 30 December 2025
  • 28 January 2026
  • 25 February 2026
  • 27 March 2026
  • 28 April 2026
  • 27 May 2026
  • 26 June 2026
  • 29 July 2026
  • 26 August 2026
  • 28 September 2026
  • 28 October 2026
  • 25 November 2026
  • 30 December 2026

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Period surveyed

June 2018 until November 2025

Date of publication

2025/11/26

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Rights of use

The data on the European Labour Market Barometer are published under the following Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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