Having enjoyed one of the strongest labour market records among fellow EU member nations over the last decade, the UK has slipped to 10th place in the rankings for unemployment using the standardised ILO measure (i.e. the labour force survey measure in the UK). Five of Europe’s new member states now have unemployment rates below that of the UK. The club med countries continue to dominate the lower reaches of the table.

Denmark 2.7
Netherlands 2.8
Cyprus 3.6
Slovenia 4.0
Estonia 4.1
Austria 4.2
Czech Republic 4.4
Lithuania 4.4
Luxembourg 4.7
United Kingdom 5.0
Latvia 5.1
Sweden 5.4
Bulgaria 5.5
Ireland 5.7
Malta 5.7
Finland 6.0
Italy 6.1
Romania 6.2
Total EU 6.7
Belgium 6.9
Eurozone 7.1
Germany 7.4
Portugal 7.4
Hungary 7.6
Poland 7.7
France 7.8
Greece 7.9
Spain 9.6
Slovak Republic 10.0

Source: UK labour market stats - international comparisons (excel spreadsheet link)