Eurozone jobless rate drop sparks hopes
Print Edition
UNEMPLOYMENT in the eurozone fell to its lowest level for three and a half years in July, raising hopes that economic recovery in the single currency area is taking hold, official data showed yesterday.
Joblessness in the 19-nation bloc fell to 10.9 percent in July from 11.1 percent in June, the first time it has dipped below 11 percent since February 2012, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat said.
But youth unemployment was at a still high 21.9 percent.
As usual, the level of joblessness varied widely across the eurozone, but the sharp fall will boost hope that Europe is emerging from its prolonged debt crisis.
However, analysts cautioned that any improvement in the jobs market remained modest and came after disappointing second quarter economic growth data.
“We do not expect the eurozone’s labor market recovery to gain much pace in the coming months,” said Jessica Hinds, European economist at Capital Economics.
“The employment components of survey indicators... only nudged up in August and remain consistent with pretty weak annual employment growth in the near term,” she said.
In contrast to the fall in joblessness eurozone-wide, unemployment rose in France to 10.4 percent, in Austria to 5.8 percent and Finland to 9.7 percent.
The highest rate was in debt-stricken Greece, at 25 percent in May, the latest data available, but down from 25.6 percent a month earlier.
Youth unemployment in Greece was 51.8 percent and at a still huge 48.6 percent in Spain, another country struggling to create jobs after the crisis.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
