Unemployment rate drops in June
Labor market conditions in the common currency bloc improved in June, according to data released by Eurostat. The number of unemployed people decreased by 45,000, and the unemployment rate fell to 7.5% in June (May: 7.6%). The result marks the lowest unemployment rate since July 2008.
Looking at the countries with data available, six economies saw their unemployment rates fall in June, including Italy and Spain. In contrast, seven economies, including France and the Netherlands, experienced a higher unemployment rate.
Despite a large overall improvement in the Eurozone over recent years, disparities in the labor market among core and periphery countries persist. Greece is the economy in the Eurozone with by far the highest unemployment rate (17.6%, data refers to April), followed by Spain (14.0%) and Italy (9.7%). At the other end of the spectrum, Germany (3.1%), Malta (3.4%) and the Netherlands (3.4%) have the lowest unemployment rates.