Brussels, 12/09/2014 (Agence Europe) - The unemployment rate may have remained virtually unchanged in the EU for the past several months (11.5% on average) but the number of people in employment rose by 0.2% in the eurozone in the second quarter of 2014 and by 0.3% in the EU as a whole, according to the latest figures released by the EU's statistical office, Eurostat, on Friday 12 September.
In the first quarter of 2014, employment rose by 0.1% in the eurozone and by 0.2% in the EU28. Now, in the second quarter, 224.9 million people are in employment in the EU, with 146.5 million of these in the eurozone. The member states which saw the highest rises in employment were Estonia (+1,2%), Portugal (+0,9%) and Spain (+0,7%), while Lithuania (-1,0%) and Cyprus (-0,1%) registered decreases. (JK)