Latvia's Student Workforce: Nearly 1 in 5 Employed While Studying

In 2024, 25.4% of young Europeans (aged 15-29) were employed during formal education. 71.4% of young people remained outside the labour force and 3.2% were unemployed (available for employment and actively seeking employment ) while in formal education. The Netherlands (74.3%), Denmark (56.4%) and Germany (45.8%) observed the highest shares of young people working and studying simultaneously. By contrast, Romania (2.4%), Greece (6.0%) and Croatia (6.4%) reported the lowest shares among EU countries. Latvia was in the middle with 17% of students working and studying at once. However, it should also be noted that the Latvian dataset was one of several deemed to be of "low reliability". The highest shares of unemployed young people in formal education, who were available for employment and actively seeking employment were recorded in Sweden (14.1%), Finland (10.0%) and Denmark (9.6%). At the other end of the scale, Romania (0.6%), Croatia, Czechia and Hungary (each 0.8%) had less than 1% of young people seeking employment.