The euro zone unemployment rate fell by 0.1 point in January to 6.4% of the working population, its lowest level in history despite a gloomy economic situation, according to data published Friday by Eurostat. The December figure was initially estimated at 6.4%, but was revised upwards to 6.5%. The indicator is at its lowest since the European Statistics Office began compiling this series in April 1998 for countries having adopted the single currency.
Year-on-year, the unemployment rate fell by 0.2 points in January. These figures demonstrate the resilience of the job market in the face of economic stagnation in Europe over the past year and a half.
For the European Union as a whole, the rate of unemployed people rose to 6% in January, stable compared to the previous month and down 0.1 point year-on-year. Unemployment has fallen significantly in Europe since mid-2021, thanks to the strong post-Covid economic recovery which followed a historic recession.
13.14 million people unemployed in the European Union
Despite a stagnation of economic activity in the euro zone from the end of 2022, fueled by the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the surge in inflation, it continued to decline before stabilizing since spring 2023 at a unprecedented level in a quarter of a century.
Some 13.14 million men and women were unemployed in January in the twenty-seven EU member states, including 11.01 million among the twenty countries sharing the single currency.
The unemployment rate stands at 7.5% in France, compared to 3.1% in Germany, according to harmonized Eurostat data. The lowest rates in the EU were recorded in Malta (2.6%), Poland (2.9%) and the Czech Republic (3%). The highest were recorded in Spain (11.6%) and Greece (10.4%).
Eurostat data is based on the International Labor Office (ILO) definition of unemployment. Unemployed people are considered unemployed people who have actively looked for work in the previous four weeks and are available to start working in the next two weeks.