The employment rate in the EU is back to where it was before the coronavirus crisis, according to a report published by the European Commission on Friday 1 October.
Employment expectations have become “very optimistic” in recent months, the report says, noting that signs were “particularly optimistic” for the services and manufacturing sectors.
In the second quarter of 2021, 207.5 million people were employed in the EU, and 159 million in the euro area. These levels are higher than those of the first quarter of 2021 (1.5 million in the EU and 1 million in the euro area), but remain lower than the peaks observed in the last quarter of 2019 (of 2 in the EU and 2.1 million in the euro area). In July 2021, there were 14.6 million unemployed in the EU and 12.3 million in the euro area in January 2021, 1.8 million and 1.7 million less respectively than in August 2020.
However, the European Commission reports that the economic recovery is accompanied by an increase in hours worked, at the expense of new hiring. Other downsides include large disparities between Member States, between women and men and between sectors.
To access the report: https://bit.ly/3mh0SR2 (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)