Euro zone: unemployment continues to decline in September, especially among young people

Europe 1 with AFP 11:40 am, November 3, 2021

The unemployment rate in the euro zone continued to decline in September, affecting 7.4% of the working population, after 7.5% in August and 7.6% in July, and against 8.6% in September 2020, Eurostat announced on Wednesday.

The rebound in the economy since the spring, after the shock of health restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, continues to fuel the improvement in the labor market.

For the EU as a whole, unemployment fell in September to 6.7% of the working population, against 6.9% the previous month, and 7.7% in September 2020, according to the European statistics office .

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Some 14.32 million men and women were unemployed in the EU in September, including 12.08 million in the 19 countries sharing the common currency.

By country, the lowest unemployment in September was recorded in the Czech Republic (2.6%), and the highest in Spain (14.6%), after Greece (13.3%).

Among the heavyweights in the euro zone, Germany still shows the best performance (3.4%), more or less at the level of the Netherlands (3.1%), far ahead of France (7.7%) and Italy (9.2%).

Significant improvement in young people

The improvement remains even more marked among young people (under 25), the first victims last year of the recession linked to health restrictions which paralyzed entire sections of the economy: their unemployment rate fell by 0, 2 point over one month in September in the EU, at 15.9%.

It stood at 18% in September 2020. Unemployment of young people under 25 fell even more sharply in the euro zone alone, to 16% in September, against 16.3% in August and against 18, 8% a year ago.