09 January 2019•Update: 09 January 2019
By Muhammed Ali Gurtas
ANKARA
The European Union saw no change in the unemployment rate in November 2018, stable at 6.7 percent, according to official data released on Wednesday.
"This remains the lowest rate recorded in the EU28 since the start of the EU monthly unemployment series in January 2000," Eurostat said.
On a yearly basis, the unemployment rate in the EU dropped 0.6 percentage point compared with 7.3 percent in November, 2017.
"The euro area [EA19] seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 7.9 percent in November 2018, down from 8.0 percent in October 2018 and from 8.7 percent in November 2017," the statistical office added.
The eurozone/euro area or EA19 represents member states that use the single currency -- euro -- while the EU28 includes all member countries of the bloc.
Official figures revealed that nearly 16.5 million men and women in the EU28 -- of whom around 13 million in the euro area -- were unemployed.
Eurostat stated that the lowest rates were in Czech Republic with 1.9 percent and Germany with 3.3 percent, as the highest figures were in Greece with 18.6 percent -- September figures --, and Spain with 14.7 percent.
"In November 2018, 3.4 million young persons [under 25] were unemployed in the EU28, of whom 2.4 million were in the euro area.
"The youth unemployment rate was 15.2 percent in the EU28 and 16.9 percent in the euro area, compared with 16.1 percent and 17.8 percent respectively in November 2017," it said.
On the youth unemployment side, the lowest figures were recorded in Czech Republic, Germany and the Netherlands, while the highest figures were observed in Greece, Spain and Italy.
