Brussels – The European Union’s economy is growing, albeit slowly. According to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, in the third quarter of 2026 (July, August and September), seasonally adjusted GDP – that is, adjusted for the periodic and predictable fluctuations that recur every year during the same period due to seasonal factors – rose by 0.4 per cent in the eurozone and by 0.5 per cent in the EU compared with the previous quarter. In the second quarter of this year (April–May–June), there had been an increase of 0.6 per cent in the eurozone and 0.7 per cent in the EU. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, seasonally adjusted GDP grew by 1.3 per cent in the euro area and by 1.5 per cent in the EU. Among the Member States for which data were available – compared with the previous quarter – Ireland (+5.5 per cent) recorded the highest increase, followed by Estonia, Spain and the Netherlands, in all three of which GDP rose by 0.6 per cent. Declines were observed in Lithuania (-1.0 per cent) and France (-0.1 per cent), while Italy remained unchanged at 0. However, compared with the same quarter of the previous year, the figure rose by 0.8 per cent.
The information provided by Eurostat does not end there; it also covers the unemployment rate, which in September 2026 stood at 6.5 per cent in the euro area, unchanged from August 2026 and up from 6.3 per cent in September 2025. In the EU, between August and September 2026, the rate remained stable at 6.2 per cent, up 0.2 percentage points from September 2025. Eurostat estimates that in September there were over 13.5 million unemployed people in the EU (13.77 million), of whom 11.55 million were in the euro area. Compared with August 2026, unemployment rose by 105,000 in the EU and by 122,000 in the euro area, whilst, compared with September 2025, it rose by 471,000 in the EU and by 420,000 in the euro area.
Looking at youth unemployment, in September there were 3.02 million young people under 25 unemployed in the EU, of whom 2.46 million were in the euro area. In September 2026, the youth unemployment rate stood at 15.5 per cent in the EU, up from 15.4 per cent in the previous month. In the euro area, the rate stood at 15.4 per cent, also higher than the 15.1 per cent recorded in August 2026. Over the course of one month, between August and September 2026, youth unemployment rose by 44,000 in the EU and by 69,000 in the euro area. Over the course of a year – between September 2025 and September 2026 – youth unemployment rose by 45,000 in the EU and by 80,000 in the euro area. In this context, the unemployment rate for women stood at 6.4 per cent in the EU, higher than the 6 per cent recorded for men. In the eurozone, the rate for women stood at 6.7 per cent, unchanged from the previous month, while for men it was 6.4 per cent.
In Italy, between August 2026 and September 2026, the unemployment rate rose from 6.2 to 6.3 per cent, while in September 2025 it stood at 5.9 per cent. Over the course of a year, the number of unemployed people rose from 1,502 million to 1,620 million. In September 2026, the youth unemployment rate stood at 19.9 per cent, down slightly from the 20.3 per cent recorded in August, affecting a total of 253,000 young people. Also in September 2026, the unemployment rate for men stood at 5.7 per cent, while for women it was 7 per cent.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
