More recent grads in the EU are working than ever before

George LaRocque of WorkTech, a member of College Recruiter’s Board of Advisors, brought some great news to my attention.

The European Union just announced that the percentage of recent graduates aged 20-34 had peaked at 81 percent in 2018, fell during the Covid pandemic, and is now higher than ever before. In 2022, 82 percent of these recent graduates were employed.

Digging into the numbers a little, it is clear that the gains applied both to women and men. Historically, about four percent more male recent graduates were employed than female, but that gap narrowed to 2.2 percent in 2022. It is unclear what caused the narrowing of the gap, but the EU’s summary of the report indicates that it could be that professions which tend to be dominated by men were not quite as strong as those which tend to be dominated by women.

The percentages vary considerably country-to-country. Leading the way were Luxembourg and the Netherlands with 93 percent of recent graduates employed. Germany at 92 and Malta at 91 percent were close behind. Lagging far behind were Italy at 65, Greece at 66, and Romania at 70 percent.