Eurostat released December data on unemployment in the euro area (EU-13) and the EU as a whole (EU-27). According to the Union’s statistical service, in December the unemployment rate in the EU as a whole was 6.8% – 0.1 percentage points less than in November. A year ago (December 2006), it was 7.6%.
In the euro area (EU-13), the unemployment rate in December remained unchanged: 7.2%. The lowest unemployment rate in the EU was recorded in the Netherlands (2.9%), Denmark (3.1%), Cyprus (3.9%), Latvia (3.9%) and Austria (4.3%) . The highest – in Slovakia (10.8%), Spain (8.6%), Portugal (8.2%), Greece (8.2%), Poland (8.1%) and France (7.8%) )
An interesting trend in recent months has been a significant improvement in the situation on the Polish labor market: a year ago, this Eastern European country occupied the last place in terms of unemployment (13.6%), while today the situation in it is approaching the average European level (8.1%, according to compared with 6.8% of the EU average).
For comparison, in December, the US unemployment rate was 5%; in Japan – 3.8%.
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