EU unemployment rate down in March

By Gokhan Ergocun

ANKARA (AA) - The European Union's unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in March, down from 9.4 percent the same month last year, according to Eurostat on Wednesday.

The unemployment rate in the Eurozone (EA19) hit its lowest level since December 2008.

The EU28 unemployment rate also slightly decreased to 7.1 percent, compared to 7.9 percent at March 2017.

"This is the lowest rate recorded in the EU28 since September 2008," it said.

Unemployment fell by 1.93 million in the EU28 and 1.41 million in the EA19 in March over the same month last year.

The institute estimated that around 17.5 million men and women in the EU28 and around 13.82 million in the EA19 were unemployed as of March.

According to the data, the Czech Republic has the lowest unemployment rate at 2.2 percent in March. Malta and Germany followed it with 3.3 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.

The highest figures were recorded in Greece, 20.6 percent in December 2017, and in Spain at 16.1 percent.

In the last decade, the highest annual unemployment rate in the EU was recorded in 2013 at 10.9 percent, while the lowest level was 7 percent in 2008.

Youth unemployment rate -- of those aged under 25 -- decreased both in EU28 and EA19, while EU28 has 3.5 million young unemployed persons, of whom 2.45 million were in the EA19.

"In March 2018, the youth unemployment rate was 15.6 percent in the EU28 and 17.3 percent in the euro area, compared with 17.3 percent and 19.4 percent, respectively, in March 2017," Eurostat said.

Meanwhile, the preliminary flash estimate for the first quarter of 2018 showed that GDP increased by 0.4 percent in both the EA19 and the EU28 compared with the previous quarter, and they rose by 2.5 percent and 2.4 percent, versus the same quarter of last year, respectively.