Eurozone Unemployment Rate Hits 8-Year Low

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The euro area unemployment rate was 9.1 percent in July 2017, which is the lowest unemployment rate recorded in the Eurozone since February 2009, a report published Monday by EU statistical office eurostat said.

July's unemployment rate was the same as in the previous month and down compared to 10 percent in July 2016.

"The EU28 unemployment rate was 7.7% in July 2017, stable compared to June 2017 and down from 8.5% in July 2016. This remains the lowest rate recorded in the EU28 since December 2008," the report added.

Almost 19 million men and women in the European Union, of whom almost 15 million reside in the euro area, were unemployed in July 2017. Compared to June 2017, the number of the unemployed in the bloc grew by 93,000 and by 73,000 in the euro area. In comparison to July 2016, unemployment fell by 1.9 million in the European Union and by 1.3 million in the eurozone.

With regard to individual unemployment rates within the euro area, the lowest for last month were in the Czech Republic (2.9 percent), Germany (3.7 percent) and Malta (4.1 percent), while the highest were recorded in Greece (21.7 percent) and Spain (17.1 percent).

In July 2017, 3.8 million people under the age of 25 were unemployed in the European Union, with about 2.7 million of them in the euro area.