Eurozone unemployment rate up slightly
Unemployment in the eurozone has risen slightly from a historically low level. The unemployment rate increased by 0.1 percentage points to 6.5% in September of the current year compared to the previous month, as reported by the statistics office Eurostat in Luxembourg on Friday.
The statistics office estimates the number of unemployed in the 20 countries with the common currency at a good 11.0 million. This is around 69,000 more than in the previous month. In a year-on-year comparison, the number fell by around 212,000. The youth unemployment rate also rose by 0.1 percentage points to 14.0% within the month, which is significantly higher than the overall unemployment rate.
The labor market situation varies greatly from region to region: Spain (12.0%) and Greece (10.0%) had the highest unemployment rates of the eurozone countries in September. Germany has one of the lowest rates at 3.0%. The lowest rate is in Malta at 2.8 percent.
Eurostat's labour market data is based on figures from the International Labor Organization (ILO). The rate for Germany is therefore significantly lower than the figure reported by the Federal Employment Agency (BA). According to figures released by the Nuremberg-based agency on Thursday, the unemployment rate for Germany in October was 5.7 percent.
The rise in the eurozone unemployment rate might impact the overall dynamics of the labor market. Moreover, analysts may need to closely monitor the unemployment trends in different countries, such as Spain and Greece, which have significantly higher rates compared to Germany and Malta.
Source: www.dpa.com
