In good news for the European Union, the EU28 unemployment level fell from 8.7% in May 2016 to 7.8% in May 2017 and, in the eurozone, unemployment fell from 10.2% to 9.3% over the same period, according to figures published by the EU statistical office Eurostat on Monday 3 July.
This is an encouraging result for Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen who notes further that, for the first time since 2001, unemployment has fallen in all member states over this period. The EU28 unemployment rate is the lowest recorded since December 2008.
In raw figures, some 19.115 million people were registered unemployed in the EU28 in May 2017, with 15.034 million in the euro zone. This represents a drop of 2.122 million across the whole of the EU compared with May 2016 and of 1.428 million in the eurozone.
Significant differences persist between sectors and between member states, as the commissioner pointed out. For example, while the unemployment rate is 3% – virtually full employment – in the Czech Republic or 3.9% in Germany, it still sits at 22.5% in Greece (figures for March 2017) and 17.7% in Spain. Nonetheless, over the period from May 2016 to May 2017, Spain experienced one of the largest reductions in unemployment in the EU. In May 2016, the jobless rate was 20.2%.
Casting a further shadow, unemployment among young people (18-24 year-olds) remains substantially higher, even though it has dropped over this same period, from 19% to 16.9% in the EU28 and from 21.3% to 18.9% in the eurozone. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)