Germany and UK push EU unemployment down to post-crisis low
Unemployment across the European Union reached a seven-year low in April, as Germany clocked a record-low jobless rate and the UK registered its highest ever number of people in work.
The rate of unemployment for the entire EU came in at 8.7 per cent in April, down from 8.8 per cent a month before – the lowest rate across the 28 countries since April 2009.
Across the 19-member Eurozone, however, the jobless rate was unchanged at 10.2 per cent – its joint-lowest since 2011 – as unemployment has dropped by an average of 100,000 a month over the past year.
Jonathan Loynes at Capital Economics warned that if unemployment plateaus at more than ten per cent in the Eurozone this would be "some way above the levels likely to generate any meaningful upward pressure on wage growth", meaning inflation could stay subdued for some time.
Read more: ECB to keep stimulus on ice
Separate figures released this morning showed that the German unemployment rate reached its lowest level since reunification. The jobless rate dropped to six per cent on an unadjusted basis for May according to the German federal labour office.
Using slightly different calculations and on a seasonally-adjusted basis, Eurostat said German unemployment was 4.2 per cent.
By contrast, Greece registered the highest level of unemployment across the EU at 24.2 per cent according to Eurostat, while one in five Spanish workers were also unemployed.