An unemployed person costs between €18,008 and €33,443 a year, a new report reveals

To face this rising unemployment, the European Commission identified personal and household services as a promising sector.

On the 30th of January, EFSI published a report calculating the cost of an unemployed in six EU Member States (Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and the United-Kingdom). It reveals that an unemployed person costs yearly on average €19,991 in Spain and €26 905 in Sweden. While the European Conference on the job creation potential of personal and household services opens today in Brussels, EFSI stresses that schemes supporting the sector could create 5.5 million jobs at a low cost for public finance.

 “Public measures supporting the personal and household services’ sector will undoubtedly contribute to move millions of undeclared workers from the shadow to the formal economy” said Aurélie Decker, EFSI’s Director. “It is time for governments to recognize that the cost of an unemployed is higher than the potential loss of revenue induced by schemes supporting jobs creation in the sector“ she added.

Entitled “why invest in employment ? A study on the cost of unemployment”, Idea Consult’s report calculates the cost of an unemployed person related to the benefit of an active person in six EU Member States : Belgium (€33,443), France (€28 737), Germany (€25,550), Spain (€19,991), Sweden (€26,905) and United Kingdom (€18,008). It reveals that the most important cost of unemployment is induced by the potential loss of revenue for governments.

The report is available in English (PDF, 1.3MB), French (PDF, 1.3MB), and Spanish (PDF, 1.5MB).

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