Forex News – Euro zone unemployment falls for first time in 4-years
November 29, 2013 1:00 pm
Unemployment in the Euro zone has hovered above 12% since the beginning of this year. Data released by Eurostat today show that the jobless rate fell in October to 12.1% from the prior month’s record high 12.2%. This was slightly below expectations for the rate to remain unchanged.
This is the first time in three years that unemployment has fallen in the 17 countries of the Euro zone. The last decline was in early 2011 when unemployment fell to just under 10%.
While the drop in the number of jobless would normally raise hopes of a turnaround in the Euro zone labour market, when looking at the actual number of people who are out of work, this figure has unfortunately increased by 60,000 in September against August to 19.447 million people.
More disappointing news was that the youth unemployment rate hit a new record high in October, reaching 41.2%.This is the highest level since data collection began in 1977. In actual numbers, this corresponds to 3.577 million people.
On an individual country basis, Greece’ unemployment rate was the worst in the Euro zone, remaining much higher than the Euro zone figure at 27.3% as of August). Spain follows with a 26.7% rate in September. Youth unemployment in these two countries is above 50%.
In stark contrast to these debt-ridden countries, Europe’s largest economy – Germany – reported an unemployment rate at a mere 5.2%.
The euro remained firm against the dollar after the data, trading above the key $1.3600 level.
Unemployment in the Euro zone has hovered above 12% since the beginning of this year. Data released by Eurostat today show that the jobless rate fell in October to 12.1% from the prior month’s record high 12.2%. This was slightly below expectations for the rate to remain unchanged.
This is the first time in three years that unemployment has fallen in the 17 countries of the Euro zone. The last decline was in early 2011 when unemployment fell to just under 10%.
While the drop in the number of jobless would normally raise hopes of a turnaround in the Euro zone labour market, when looking at the actual number of people who are out of work, this figure has unfortunately increased by 60,000 in September against August to 19.447 million people.
More disappointing news was that the youth unemployment rate hit a new record high in October, reaching 41.2%.This is the highest level since data collection began in 1977. In actual numbers, this corresponds to 3.577 million people.
On an individual country basis, Greece’ unemployment rate was the worst in the Euro zone, remaining much higher than the Euro zone figure at 27.3% as of August). Spain follows with a 26.7% rate in September. Youth unemployment in these two countries is above 50%.
In stark contrast to these debt-ridden countries, Europe’s largest economy – Germany – reported an unemployment rate at a mere 5.2%.
The euro remained firm against the dollar after the data, trading above the key $1.3600 level.
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