Unemployment rate unchanged in October
According to data released by Eurostat, labor market conditions in the common currency bloc were broadly stable in October. The number of unemployed people increased 15,000, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at September’s 8.1%. The unemployment rate is resting at the lowest rate since November 2008.
Looking at the countries with data available, the bulk of the economies saw little changes in their labor markets. In contrast, Estonia and Italy both saw their unemployment rates edge up to 5.8% and 10.6%, respectively. On the flip side, Lithuania saw a sizable drop in its unemployment rate to 6.3%.
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 (18.6%, data refers to September), followed by Spain (14.8%) and Italy (10.6%). At the other end of the spectrum, Germany (3.2%), Malta (3.7%) and the Netherlands (3.7%) have the lowest unemployment rates.