Italy is no place for recent graduates: it ranks second-to-last in the EU for employment rates

Brussels – Young, well-educated and brimming with energy to make the transition from education to work: they could be a driving force, yet Italy does not “make the most of” them. According to Eurostat data, the EU’s statistical office, Italy ranks second-to-last among EU countries in terms of the employment rate for recent graduates. In 2025, 83 per cent of young people aged between 20 and 34 who had recently graduated or completed their secondary education found work in the EU. This is an increase from the 82.3 per cent recorded in 2024 and represents a steady improvement, having risen by 7.5 percentage points over the last 11 years. Topping the rankings is Malta, with the highest employment rate for recent graduates (91 per cent). Following the Mediterranean island are Germany (90.6 per cent) and the Netherlands (90.1 per cent). At the other end of the scale, however, Greece (62.4 per cent), Italy (71.8 per cent), and Romania (72.7 per cent) have the lowest employment rates. 

Generally speaking, at the EU level, male recent graduates (84.4 per cent) have a higher employment rate than female graduates (81.5 per cent). But here, too, things look bleak for Italy, given that Italians have the second-lowest rate (73.3 per cent), behind Greece (56.8 per cent) and ahead of Romania (74.9 per cent). In contrast, the Czech Republic (92.4 per cent), the Netherlands (92.1 per cent), and Germany (92 per cent) had the highest employment rates for men. 

The picture is much the same for women. Malta (90.5 per cent), Germany (89 per cent), and Austria (88.8 per cent) top the rankings for female employment rates, while Greece (68.6 per cent), Italy (70.2 per cent), and Romania (70.3 per cent) have the lowest. 

So, in 18 EU countries, the employment rate among recent graduates was higher for men than for women, with the largest gaps in the Czech Republic (+12.2 percentage points), Latvia (+10.3 percentage points), and Slovenia (+6.3 percentage points). In countries with higher female employment rates, the largest discrepancies were recorded in Greece (+11.8 percentage points), Estonia (+5.0 percentage points), and Finland (+4.4 percentage points). 

As for high-school leavers, the employment rate stood at 80.2 per cent in 2025 and, here too, was higher for men (81.5 per cent) than for women (78.2 per cent). Eight EU countries had met the EU target of at least 82 per cent by 2025: Germany (91.5 per cent), Denmark, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Austria, Sweden, Hungary, and Slovakia. All of these countries, with the exception of the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, had also met the target separately for men and women. The countries with the lowest employment rates were Greece (58 per cent), Romania (63.4 per cent), and Italy (64.9 per cent).