Between October and December, employment growth slowed by a tenth, to 0.1%, in the Eurozone, while in the 27 member states of the community bloc, it increased by 0.2%, after remaining stable in the third quarter.

Only Romania (+2.0%) and Spain (+0.9%) performed better than Portugal in the quarter-on-quarter variation. Croatia, Finland (both -0.4%), Latvia and Sweden (both -0.2%) had the largest decreases.

In the annual comparison, the number of employed persons grew by 0.7% in the single currency area and by 0.5% in the EU in the last quarter of 2024, while in the third quarter, the increases were 1.0% and 0.8%, respectively.

Among the 27 Member States, Croatia (4.2%), Malta (3.8%) and Ireland (2.5%) recorded the largest year-on-year increases in the indicator, while Latvia (-1.0%), Poland and Finland (-0.8%) and Sweden (-0.6%) showed the largest declines. Portugal had an annual increase of 1.7%.

When it comes to hours worked, there were increases of 0.6% in the euro area and 0.5% in the EU in Q4 2024 compared to the previous quarter. Compared to the same period last year, hours worked rose by 1.6% among single-currency countries and 1.0% in the EU bloc.

Eurostat also estimates that, in the last three months of last year, there were 219.7 million people employed in the European Union, of which 171.2 million were in the Eurozone. Over that period, people-based productivity will have increased by 0.4% in the euro area and by 0.8% in the EU, compared with the same quarter last year.