According to estimates from Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, seasonally-adjusted unemployment stood at 7.6% in the European Union (EU28) in August 2017, and at 9.1% in the euro area (EA19).
The unemployment rate was thus down by 0.1 points in the EU28 compared with July 2017 (7.7%) and by 0.9 points compared with August 2016 (8.5%) – making it the lowest rate since November 2008. For the euro area, the August unemployment rate remained stable compared with that of July, and fell by 0.8 points compared with August 2016 (9.9%) – thus being at its lowest level since February 2009.
These figures nevertheless hide considerable heterogeneity across the EU. The Czech Republic, Germany and Malta thus had respective unemployment rates of 2.9%, 3.6% and 4.2%, while the rate was 11.2% in Italy, 17.1% in Spain and 21.2% in Greece (June 2017 data).
The youth unemployment rate (young people under 25) was 16.7% in the EU28 and 18.9% in the EA19 in August 2017 – down by 1.8 and 1.7 points respectively compared with August 2016.
When making its estimate, Eurostat considered that a person was unemployed when they had no work, were available to work within two weeks and had been actively in search of work over the previous four weeks. (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)