Eurozone cheers as unemployment dips below 10% for first time in five years.
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Some cheer for the millions of unemployed Europeans with the news Eurozone unemployment has fallen to below 10% for the first time since 2011. The peak was 12.1% in 2013, but it is still well above the 7.2% the Eurozone enjoyed in March 2008.
Hotspots remain, of course, in places like Spain, which did see the sharpest decrease, Portugal and Greece, and France’s rate remains stubbornly high, but of the 17 eurozone nations reporting 14 saw unemployment fall. Only Malta saw a slight rise.
Lowest unemployment rate in euro area and in the EU since 2009 #Eurostat https://t.co/IYN7nFMobK pic.twitter.com/miFXTolFl0
— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) 1 décembre 2016
For the EU as a whole the unemployment rate is 8.3%, the lowest since February 2009.
Of the 28 member states the rate was stable in Italy, and worse in Austria, Denmark and
Estonia. All the other economies added jobs.
13% of people in the EU cannot afford to get together with friends/family for a drink or meal once a month #Eurostat https://t.co/9CjM28rgHF pic.twitter.com/kKThCTyy33
— EU_Eurostat (@EU_Eurostat) 1 décembre 2016
However youth unemployment remains at double or even more the average, and compared to the USA or Japan, overall unemployment is higher.
