World of HR: Immigrant employment in European Union reaches record high

Employment rates for immigrants across the pond are on the rise, according to a new study from the Center for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), part of RFBerlin. While progress has been made, some challenges remain, especially as it relates to gender inequality.

The employment rate for immigrants in the European Union (EU) hit 68% in 2025, the highest level in nearly a decade. And the employment rates for those who immigrated within the EU were similar to (or better than) those of non-immigrants.

Those who immigrated from non-EU countries also made gains, with their employment rate reaching 66%, up seven points from 2017.

While some countries, like Belgium, have struggled to improve their employment rates for immigrants from non-EU countries, several countries, including Malta, Czechia, and Ireland, found that those immigrants were more likely to be employed than native-born workers.

Gender appeared to be the largest driver of inequality, regardless of where the workers were from, the report found. The unemployment rate for non-EU immigrant women was 11 percentage points lower than that of native-born women in 2025; for men, the gap was less than half a percentage point.

Higher education appeared to have a positive impact on employment rates, regardless of workers’ immigration status. But educated immigrants from non-EU countries were still more likely to be unemployed than non-immigrants with comparable education.

“Immigrants are adapting more and more to the needs of the European labour market,” Tommasso Frattini, deputy director of CReAM, told Radio France International. “They are more flexible, and can more easily move to the countries or regions that need their labour.”