Bulgaria Tops EU Unemployment Rankings with Record Low 3.1% in January

Unemployment across the euro area reached a new historic low in January 2026, easing to 6.1% from 6.2% in December 2025, according to Eurostat. At EU level, the jobless rate also edged down, standing at 5.8% compared with 5.9% a month earlier.

Significant differences remain among member states. Finland recorded the highest unemployment rate in January at 10.2%, followed by Spain with 9.8%, Sweden at 8.7%, and both Greece and France at 7.7%. At the opposite end of the scale were Bulgaria and Poland, each with 3.1%, and the Czech Republic with 3.2%, placing Bulgaria among the countries with the lowest unemployment in both the eurozone and the EU.

For Bulgaria specifically, the unemployment rate in January 2026 stood at 3.1%, slightly down from 3.2% in December 2025. A year earlier, in January 2025, the indicator was higher at 3.6%, indicating a gradual annual improvement.

In absolute terms, 12.928 million people were unemployed across the EU in January, including 10.770 million within the euro area. Compared with December 2025, the number of unemployed fell by 185,000 in the EU and by 184,000 in the eurozone. On an annual basis, the decline reached 274,000 in the EU and 273,000 in the euro area.

In Bulgaria, 94,000 people were registered as unemployed in January, down from 96,000 in the previous month. Compared with January 2025, when 111,000 Bulgarians were without work, this represents a reduction of 17,000.

Youth unemployment across the EU continued to ease, falling to 15.1% in January from 15.2% in December. In the euro area, the rate declined to 14.8% from 15.0%. Bulgaria diverged slightly from this trend: unemployment among people under 25 rose marginally to 12.4% from 12.3% a month earlier and stood well above the 9.8% recorded in January 2025.