A staggering 73% of unemployed people in Malta aged between 20 and 34 are not willing to leave the country for work, according to Eurostat.
Malta was followed by the Netherlands (69%) and Cyprus (68%).
According to the EU’s statistical office, 50% of unemployed people aged 20-34 in the European Union (EU) were reluctant to change their place of residence for a job, 21% were ready to move for a job but only in the same country, whereas 12% would consider moving to another EU state. 17% would even be ready to move for a job outside the EU.
The education level of the young people played a role. The young unemployed with a high level of education were more ready to move for work (23% ready to move in the same country and 16% ready to relocate inside the EU) than young unemployed with a medium education level (20% and 11% respectively) or young unemployed with a low level of education (21% and 10%).
The majority of employed people aged 20-34 in the EU did not relocate for their current job (90%). The share of those who actually did move to another EU state was only 1% of the young employed, while 8% moved inside the country for their current job.
Job mobility within the country rises among young employed with a higher level of education (13% have moved) compared with people with a medium education (6%) and those with a low level of education (4%).
However, educational differences were not so significant for young employed who moved within the EU: 2% of those with high level of education and 2% of those with low education changed member state for work reasons compared with 1% of young people with a medium education level.
It said that in 15 EU states, 90% or more employed young people aged 20-34 did not move for a job. The highest share was registered in Italy (98%), the lowest in Ireland (60%). 12% of employed young people in Luxembourg, 9% in Malta and 7% in Ireland moved there from another country for their current job.
The highest shares of those who moved inside the country for work were in Ireland (26%), France (16%), Finland (14%) and Sweden (13%).
In the countries where Eurostat had sufficient sample sizes to draw conclusions the highest shares of young unemployed in the EU who were ready to change their place of residence inside the same country were in Romania and Germany (both 37%), the Czech Republic and Ireland (both 35%).
The highest shares of those ready to relocate to another EU country were recorded in Estonia and Croatia (both 26%) and Slovenia (25%). The share of young unemployed ready to move outside the EU was highest in Sweden (34%), followed by Spain and Finland (28%) and France (27%).
In most member states, the share of those ready to relocate inside the country was larger than the share of those ready to move to another EU state.
However, in eight member states, the preference was to move within the EU.
This was most apparent in Bulgaria where the share of those ready to move to another EU state was double that of those ready to move inside Bulgaria (12% ready to move within Bulgaria and 23% ready to relocate to another member state). Slovakia also stood out with 14% ready to relocate within Slovakia and 23% to another EU state.