A significant 0.3% fall in youth unemployment for those aged under 25 was registered last September throughout the European Union and eurozone, according to the most recent data published on Thursday 3 November by the EU Statistical Office (Eurostat).
September confirmed the trend in falling youth unemployment, which has continued for a number of months. Between June and July, youth unemployment fell by 0.1% and between July and August by 0.2%. This trend therefore involves an acceleration in the rate of falling youth employment as observed in September with a 0.3% decrease.
Member states with the best results in September include the Czech Republic and Ireland, which both registered a 1.1% fall. At the other end of the spectrum, Luxembourg and Austria both experienced increases in youth unemployment of 0.4% over the same period.
The best models are still Germany and the Czech Republic, whose unemployment rates among those aged under 25 stood at 6.8% and 9.8% respectively in September 2016. Those with the poorest results in this area are Spain (42.6%) and Greece (42.7%), according to the most recent data available.
Following a data review carried out by Eurostat, total unemployment rates over a period of several months have remained stable at 10% in the eurozone and at 8.5% in the EU. Variations between August and September were once again minimal. In the majority of cases rates did not exceed 0.2%, most often indicating falls (Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia and Lithuania) and twice an increase (Czech Republic and Italy). France and Ireland registered falls of 0.3%.
As in the case for youth unemployment, the countries displaying the best and worst unemployment results remain the same. Despite a slight rise, the Czech Republic is in the lead with the lowest overall unemployment rate (4%), followed by Germany (4.1%). According to the most recent data available, the rate in Greece stands at 23.2%, and at 19.3% in Spain, with these two countries the lowest achievers in this field, despite Spain’s constant improvements in this arena. (Original version in French by Thomas Régnier)