The Eurozone unemployment rate slightly decreased in July to 6.4% of the workforce, marking a modest decline from the stable rate of 6.5% observed over the previous eight months, according to the latest figures released by Eurostat on Friday.
This decline represents a 0.2-point decrease from the 6.6% recorded in July 2023.
Despite a challenging economic backdrop marked by weak growth, this rate is the lowest since April 1998, when the European Statistical Office began tracking this data series for countries that have adopted the euro.
Across the broader European Union, the unemployment rate remained steady at 6% in July, equaling the lowest historical rate both monthly and annually.
The labour market has generally held strong against the difficult economic conditions that have prevailed in Europe since the end of 2022.
This resilience comes amidst rising interest rates set by the European Central Bank aimed at tempering inflation, which surged amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Unemployment rates in Europe have notably decreased after mid-2021, thanks to a robust economic recovery that followed the historic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The rate has generally stabilized since the spring of 2023, reaching levels not seen in a quarter century.
In July, there were 13.11 million unemployed individuals across the 27 EU member states, including 10.99 million within the 20 countries comprising the Eurozone.
According to Eurostat, unemployment rates varied significantly among member states, with France reporting a 7.5% rate compared to Germany’s 3.4%.
The lowest unemployment rates in the EU were recorded in the Czech Republic (2.7%) and Poland (2.9%), while the highest were observed in Spain (11.5%) and Greece (9.9%).
Eurostat’s data is based on the International Labour Office’s definition of unemployment, which identifies the unemployed as individuals who are not working, have actively searched for work in the past four weeks, and are available to start work within the next two weeks.
