According to the criteria of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 8.6% in January. This is the lowest rate recorded in the euro area since December 2008 according to an estimate published by the European Union Statistical Office on Thursday, 1 March.
Although this rate is stable compared to last December, it is 1% below the rate for January 2017 (see EUROPE 11737). These trends are also observed at a European Union level with an unemployment rate of 7.3% of the active population in January 2018 and rates that are comparable to those of last December, with a 0.8% fall compared to January 2017. This rate is the lowest since October 2017.
Eurostat estimates that 17.931 million men and women in the EU28, of whom 14.111 million in the euro area, were unemployed in January 2018.
These figures hide, however, significant disparities between the member states where the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Czech Republic (2.4%), Malta (3.5%) and Germany (3.6%) and the highest unemployment rates were observed in Greece (20.9%) Spain (16.3%) and Italy (11.1%).
The unemployment rate among those aged under 25 stood at 17.7% in January among the active population in the Eurozone, 2.2% below last year's rate. There were also significant disparities in this area (5.8% unemployment in the Czech Republic compared to 43.7% in Greece). (Original version in French by Lucas Tripoteau)