Unemployment rate stable in July
According to data released by Eurostat, labor market conditions in the common currency bloc were largely unchanged in July. The number of unemployed people increased 73,000, and the unemployment rate held firm at 8.2%. The unemployment rate is resting at the lowest rate since November 2008.
Looking at the countries with data available, Cyprus, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands and Spain all saw their unemployment rates drop. Meanwhile, labor market conditions were unchanged in most of the remaining economies.
Despite the overall improvement in the Eurozone over recent years, disparities in the labor market among countries persist. Greece is the economy in the Eurozone with by far the highest unemployment rate (19.1%, data refers to June), followed by Spain (15.1%) and Italy (10.4%). At the other end of the spectrum, Germany (3.4%) and the Netherlands (3.8%) have the lowest unemployment rates.