Throughout the second quarter 2020, the labor markets across the European Union were affected by Covid-19 measures taken by member states. Between the first and the second quarter, a record low number of 1.9 million people in the EU (15.4 percent of all unemployed in the first quarter of 2020) found a job, according to Eurostat. During this period, 6.1 million (48.9 percent) remained unemployed and a record high of 4.4 million people (35.6 percent) became economically inactive. Of all those initially in employment in the first quarter of 2020, a record high of 3.1 million (2 percent) became unemployed in the second quarter, and similarly a record high of 5.4 million (3.4 percent) transitioned into economic inactivity.
