Figures released by Eurostat on Thursday show that labour market slack in the European Union stood at 11.7 per cent of the extended labour force in 2024.

This represents 26.7 million people aged 15 to 74 who were available for work but not participating in the labour market to their full potential.

This comprehensive measure includes those who are unemployed, underemployed, seeking a job even though they are not immediately available to work, and those immediately available to work but not seeking a job.

The figures showed that Cyprus recorded a labour market slack of 8.8 per cent for 2024, placing it well below the EU average.

Across the bloc, labour market slack has been on a downward trend, with only minor fluctuations, decreasing from 18.6 per cent in 2015.

Among EU countries, Spain recorded the highest labour market slack in 2024 at 19.3 per cent of the extended labour force, followed by Finland at 17.9 per cent and Sweden at 17.8 per cent.

Conversely, labour market slack was the lowest in Poland at 5.0 per cent, Malta at 5.1 per cent, and Slovenia and Hungary, both at 6.3 per cent.

A detailed breakdown of the EU’s overall labour market slack showed that unemployed people accounted for the largest segment, making up 5.7 per cent of the extended labour force.

The remaining components were people available to work but not seeking employment at 2.7 per cent, underemployed part-time workers at 2.4 per cent, and those seeking employment but not immediately available to work at 0.9 per cent.

The report also showed that unemployed people constituted the majority of labour market slack in 23 EU countries.

Spain registered the highest share of unemployment within its slack at 10.9 per cent, followed by Greece at 9.9 per cent, and Finland and Sweden, both at 7.9 per cent.

However, some countries presented different patterns. The majority of slack in Ireland and the Netherlands came from underemployed people working part-time, accounting for 4.4 per cent and 4.9 per cent, respectively.

In Czechia, the largest portion was among people seeking work but not immediately available to start, a share of 3.1 per cent, while in Italy, the highest share was for people who were available to work but not seeking employment, standing at 7.3 per cent.