More than half of young people aged 15–34 in the EU with medium or high education said their job matched what they studied in 2024.
Some 56.4% of young people in that group described the link between their field of education and their current or last main job as a “very high” or “high” match, Eurostat reported on Wednesday.
It said the measure is self-reported and asks people with medium or high education to rate how closely their job requirements align with what they studied, from “very high” to “no match”.
Reported matches differed by education level: 46.1% of those with a medium level of education said they had a very high or high match, compared with 68.1% of those with a high level of education.
Health and welfare was the field with the highest reported match among highly educated young people, with 80.6% saying their job closely matched their studies.
Information and communication technologies followed at 77.0%, and education at 73.6%.
Wide differences across subjects and countries
In arts and humanities, 52.2% of highly educated young people reported difficulties finding a relevant job, while the shares were 59.1% for social sciences, journalism and information and 59.3% for services, according to Eurostat.
Across EU countries, Latvia (76.5%), Lithuania (76.1%) and Germany (75.2%) recorded the highest shares of young people with medium or high education reporting a very high or high match between study and work.
Italy had the lowest share at 41.6%, followed by Slovakia at 46.2% and Denmark at 47.1%.
