Unemployment rate drops in March
Labor market conditions in the common currency bloc improved in March, according to data released by Eurostat. The number of unemployed people decreased by 174,000, and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7% in March (February: 7.8%). The result marks the lowest unemployment rate since September 2008.
Looking at the countries with data available, twelve economies saw their unemployment rates fall in March, including Italy and Spain. Luxembourg was the only economy to see its unemployment rate rise, while the rest had no changed.
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 (18.5%, data refers to January), followed by Spain (14.0%) and Italy (10.2%). At the other end of the spectrum, Germany (3.2%) and the Netherlands (3.3%) have the lowest unemployment rates.