Who is out of work, country by country
This reference shows the unemployment rate — the share of the labour force without work but available and seeking it — for countries worldwide, on the ILO-harmonised basis that makes cross-country comparison meaningful. You can search for a country and sort the table to see the full range, from economies near full employment to those with structural unemployment above 30%.
How it works
The rate is unemployed people / labour force × 100. The crucial detail is the denominator: the labour force counts only those working or actively looking for work, so people who are studying, retired, or who have given up looking are excluded. The International Labour Organization sets a common definition — without work, currently available, and actively seeking — so that a figure from one country means the same as another’s.
Why the headline rate can mislead
A low official unemployment rate is generally positive, but several situations produce a low number that hides real labour market weakness:
Discouraged workers. If someone has stopped looking for work because they believe no jobs exist, they fall outside the denominator and are no longer counted as unemployed. A rate can fall because people give up, not because they find jobs. Labour-force participation rates — the share of the working-age population in the labour force at all — reveal whether this is happening.
Underemployment. Someone working five hours a week in a temporary contract counts as employed. A large underemployed population (workers who want more hours, or who are overqualified for available positions) is invisible in the unemployment rate. The ILO’s broader measure, the “Labour Underutilization” composite, tries to capture this.
Informal sector effects. In many developing economies, a large share of workers are self-employed in subsistence agriculture, petty trade, or informal services. They are technically employed because they are “doing work for pay or profit,” even if their earnings are below any reasonable standard of decent work. Countries with large informal sectors can show deceptively low official unemployment.
Seasonal and structural differences. Agricultural economies, tourism-dependent economies, and economies in deep structural transition (such as those shifting from manufacturing to services) can show wide natural swings or persistently elevated rates that have little to do with cyclical demand.
Structural versus cyclical unemployment
The most practically useful distinction for reading this table:
- Cyclical unemployment rises in recessions and falls in recoveries. It reflects a temporary shortfall in demand, and monetary or fiscal stimulus can reduce it.
- Structural unemployment is persistent and resistant to demand stimulus. It arises from mismatches between the skills workers have and the jobs available, from rigid labour market regulations that make hiring risky, or from geographical concentration of workers and jobs. South Africa’s persistently high unemployment is primarily structural; Southern European youth unemployment has both structural and cyclical components.
Countries with very high rates that do not fall much even in good economic years are likely facing structural issues that cannot be solved by stimulus alone.
Tips and notes
- Sort descending to see where structural unemployment bites hardest — South Africa and several Southern European economies lead.
- Sort ascending to see the nearest-to-full-employment economies — very low rates often reflect a combination of good economic management, flexible labour markets, and strong social safety nets that reduce involuntary joblessness.
- A very low official rate can reflect either genuine full employment or definitional and informal-sector effects, so read it alongside the labour-force participation rate.
- These are rounded recent estimates that update with each labour survey. For authoritative, dated figures use ILOSTAT or national statistics agencies.