Brussels, 06/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - In 2015 in the European Union, the unemployment rate was more than twice as high for non-EU citizens than for nationals from member states, according to a study published by Eurostat, the European Union Statistical Office on Monday 6 June. The unemployment rate for non-EU citizens aged 20 to 64 was 18.9% and 8.7% for member state nationals. The employment rate for non-EU citizens aged 20 to 64 in the EU stood at 56.7% in 2015, while it was 70.6% for nationals
The most significant differences between the activity rates for non-EU citizens and for nationals were recorded in the Netherlands (59.7% for non-EU citizens compared with 82.2% for nationals, or -22.5 percentage points), Finland (-18.8 pp) and Germany (-18.3 pp), followed by France (-15.7 pp).
On average, in the European Union (EU), the proportion of people economically active (employed and unemployed) stood just below 70% for non-EU citizens aged 20 to 64 (69.8%), while the activity rate was above 77% for citizens of the reporting country (77.3%), referred to as “nationals” at -7.5 percentage points in 2015.
The activity rate of nationals was higher than for non-EU citizens, except in particular in Greece (72.6% for nationals compared with 80.7% for non-EU citizens), followed by Slovakia (79.2% vs. 81.5%) and Italy (67.9% vs. 72.6%). These countries are closely followed by Spain, Cyprus, Portugal, Czech Republic and Hungary. (Original version in French by Maëlle Didion)