Eurozone unemployment hits historic low

The eurozone’s unemployment rate fell to a historic low in December, official figures showed Tuesday, as hiring in Europe rode a solid recovery and shrugged off the explosive spread of the Omicron variant.

The seasonally-adjusted jobless rate stood at seven per cent last month, the lowest level since the official Eurostat statistics agency began its record in April 1998.

In the 27-member European Union, which includes countries such as Poland not in the single currency bloc, unemployment fell to 6.4 per cent in December, also a low since records began.

“The eurozone ended 2021 -- the year after the worst recession since WW2 -- with its lowest ever unemployment rate. A testimony to the success of our collective response to this crisis.” said Paolo Gentiloni, the EU economics affairs commissioner.

Prior to December, the lowest unemployment rates for both the 19 countries sharing the single currency and the EU-27 were in March 2020, at 7.2 per cent and 6.5 per cent, respectively. 

Eurostat said that some 13.6 million people were unemployed in the EU in December, including 11.5 million in the eurozone.