Grupo de personas hacen cola en una oficina de empleo de Madrid en 2011. EFE/Fototeca

Brussels / Unemployment in the European Union (EU) has fallen from 7.6% to 6.8% in one year – from 9.1% to 8.2% in the euro area – although the differences remain among the countries, with the highest figures in Greece (19.1%) and Spain (15.2%) compared to the lowest in the Czech Republic (2.3%) and Germany (3.4%).

In a quarterly report, the European Commission (EC) today takes stock of the employment situation in the EU, which concludes that the community work figures “continue to beat record” with a total of 239 million workers, 158 in the eurozone.

“The two figures are unprecedented, employment has continued to grow for five consecutive years,” the Commission said in a statement.

The report highlights that almost half of the reduction in the total number of unemployed in the EU occurred “thanks to reductions in four countries”: Spain (380,000), Italy (271,000), Poland (237,000) and Germany (145,000).

It also points to the fall in youth unemployment (15 to 24 years) to 14.8% in the EU -2 percentage points compared to July 2017- and to 16.6% in the eurozone -2.1 percentage points-.

“These reductions represent about 466,000 unemployed less than between 15 and 24 years in the EU, including 294,000 in the euro zone,” the commission said.

In July 2018, there were 3.3 million unemployed young people, 2.4 million in the euro area.

This rate fell in all Member States, adds the Commission’s report, and in most of them it is at the lowest level since 2012.

The drop was most marked in Latvia (6.7 percentage points), Belgium (5.1) and Croatia (2.1).

Greece continues to be the country with the highest youth unemployment, with a rate of 39.1%, together with Spain (33.4%) and Italy (30.8%); the lowest are registered in Germany (6.1%) and Malta (6.3%). (September 25, 2018, EFE/Practica Español)

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