Unemployment in the EU has remained constant, as in previous months
Unemployment in the European Union remained constant in May, as it had in the previous months. The seasonally adjusted rate was unchanged at 6.0 percent, according to Eurostat in Luxembourg, which announced this on Tuesday. The modest economic growth at the beginning of the year had little effect on the labor market.
The unemployment rate also remained unchanged at 6.4 percent in the Euro countries. Eurostat estimated that there were around 13 million unemployed people in the EU, with over eleven million in the 21 Euro countries.
The highest unemployment rates, as in the previous months, were in Spain (11.7 percent) and Greece (10.6 percent). The lowest rates were in the Czech Republic (2.7 percent) and Poland (3.0 percent).
Eurostat reports a jobless rate of 3.3 percent for Germany. The EU agency uses a different calculation method for international comparisons than the Federal Employment Agency. The latter gave a stable rate of 5.8 percent for May and June each. However, unlike seasonally usual, the number of unemployed people in June increased by 4,000 compared to the previous month.
In the previous months, just like in May, unemployment remained a persistent issue in several EU member states. Despite the moderate economic growth, unemployment levels in the EU remained stagnant during these periods.
