Unemployment rate during each government's tenure

27 governments, ranked by how the unemployment rate changed from their first day in office, next to the European Union over the same months. Politare shows what happened during a tenure; it does not claim the office-holder caused it.

#	Government	Country	In office	Total	vs EU	Per year	Chart
1	José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero	Spain	16 Apr 2004 – 20 Dec 2011	+11.5 pp Mar 2004 → Nov 2011	+11.2 pp EU +0.3 pp	+1.5 pp/yr
2	Dimitris Christofias	Cyprus	28 Feb 2008 – 28 Feb 2013	+11.0 pp Jan 2008 → Jan 2013	+6.5 pp EU +4.5 pp	+2.2 pp/yr
3	KIDISO Giorgos Papandreou	Greece	6 Oct 2009 – 11 Nov 2011	+10.7 pp Sep 2009 → Oct 2011	+10.1 pp EU +0.6 pp	+5.1 pp/yr
4	Esko Aho	Finland	26 Apr 1991 – 13 Apr 1995	+9.9 pp Mar 1991 → Mar 1995	—	+2.5 pp/yr
5	Brian Cowen	Ireland	7 May 2008 – 9 Mar 2011	+9.5 pp Apr 2008 → Feb 2011	+6.7 pp EU +2.8 pp	+3.4 pp/yr
6	LC Ivars Godmanis	Latvia	20 Dec 2007 – 12 Mar 2009	+8.6 pp Nov 2007 → Feb 2009	+7.2 pp EU +1.4 pp	+6.9 pp/yr
7	Jerzy Buzek	Poland	31 Oct 1997 – 19 Oct 2001	+8.1 pp Sep 1997 → Sep 2001	—	+2.0 pp/yr
8	Boyko Borissov	Bulgaria	27 Jul 2009 – 13 Mar 2013	+6.4 pp Jun 2009 → Feb 2013	+4.0 pp EU +2.4 pp	+1.7 pp/yr
9	Carl Bildt	Sweden	4 Oct 1991 – 7 Oct 1994	+5.5 pp Sep 1991 → Sep 1994	—	+1.8 pp/yr
10	Andrius Kubilius	Lithuania	26 Nov 2008 – 22 Nov 2012	+5.4 pp Oct 2008 → Oct 2012	+1.5 pp EU +3.9 pp	+1.3 pp/yr

Showing 10 of 185 tenures.

Sorted by total, highest first. Every row is indexed to the last month complete before the first day in office ("from" marks a start that had to move because that period had no data, or because the period cut it); the European Union is measured over the same months. Levels are per cent changes, rates are differences in pp; "per year" compounds levels and divides rates. Tenures with under 12 months, or under three observations, are left out. % of labour force · Eurostat (une_rt_m), seasonally adjusted · country data · as of Sep 2026.