Accessible table of the time series of the European Labour Market Barometer
European Labour Market Barometer rises against the trend
The European Labour Market Barometer rose by 0.4 points in April compared with the previous month. At 100.1 points, the barometer is back in slightly positive territory for the first time in three months. Although both components of the leading indicator of the European Network of Public Employment Services and the IAB rose slightly, the outlook still remains subdued. The employment component rose by 0.4 points to 100.5 points, whilst the component forecasting unemployment increased by 0.4 points to 99.7 points. While the employment outlook is slightly optimistic, unemployment could rise further. “The oil price shock has increased economic risks. But European labour market prospects are rising against the trend," reports 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
- 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
Contact
Period surveyed
June 2018 until April 2026
Date of publication
2026/4/28
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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)
Publications
- Leading indicators for unemployment and employment in Europe: Launch of the “European Labour Market Barometer“Hutter, Christian; Weber, Enzo (2020): Leading indicators for unemployment and employment in Europe: Launch of the 'European Labour Market Barometer'. (IAB-Kurzbericht, 21/2020), 4 p.
- Launch of the "European Labour Market Barometer"Weber, Enzo; Hutter, Christian (2020): Launch of the "European Labour Market Barometer". In: IAB-Forum, 20.10.2020, without pagination.