Unemployment rates fell in the overwhelming majority of UNECE member states that reported data in 2016. Compared with 2015, unemployment decreased in 27 out of 32 reporting countries, with 13 countries publishing rates that were over one percentage point lower in 2016. The largest decreases were reported by Croatia, Spain, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, where rates fell by 3.5, 2.5, 2.4 and 2.3 percentage points, respectively.

However, even after the decrease in unemployment from the 2015 levels, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Spain, Serbia and Croatia still reported some of the highest unemployment rates of UNECE member states in 2016 (25.4%, 19.6%, 15.3% and 12.8%, respectively). Cyprus and Portugal also reported unemployment rates of more than 10%.

In the other end of the spectrum Belarus, Iceland and Czechia reported the lowest unemployment rates of 4% or less in 2016. Germany, the Republic of Moldova, Switzerland, Malta and the United States also reported relatively low unemployment in 2016 (between 4% and 5%).