Eurozone jobless rate down despite COVID

BRUSSELS

The unemployment rate in the eurozone dropped again in November 2021, official figures showed yesterday, as hiring withstood new coronavirus outbreaks in several countries.

The European Union’s statistical agency, Eurostat, said the seasonally-adjusted jobless rate - which measures the number of people out of work as a proportion of the active population as a whole - dipped to 7.2 percent in November from 7.3 percent in October.

In the 27-member European Union, unemployment fell to 6.5 percent in November from 6.7 percent a month earlier.

The data were a marked improvement over a year earlier when the jobless rate stood at 8.1 percent in the euro area and 7.4 percent in the wider EU.

The agency estimates that 13.9 million EU residents were out of work in November.

Youth unemployment stood at 15.4 percent in the EU and 15.5 percent in the eurozone, also down on the previous month.

The downward trend in unemployment survived fresh outbreaks of the Delta variant in countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Many countries are attempting to take a similar approach in their response to the highly contagious Omicron variant, even as daily infection rates have risen to unprecedented levels across Europe.

Meanwhile, investor morale in the eurozone rose in January, a survey showed yesterday. Sentix’s index increased to 14.9 from 13.5 month on month.