No change in eurozone jobless amid recovery fears

The numbers out of work in the eurozone have not changed in the past month, continuing fears of a jobs-free recovery.

Ireland’s drop in unemployment was the third highest in the EU, but at 12% is still the eighth among the 28 countries.

Employment Commissioner László Andor said that governments must do more to support job creation and fight social exclusion through active labour policies and greater social investment, including the Youth guarantee.

“We can only speak of a proper recovery when Europe’s economy creates new jobs in hundreds of thousands every month on a sustained basis and we start making visible progress towards the 75% employment target of the Europe 2020 strategy,” he said.

The latest figures from Eurostat show the slow decline in joblessness continuing with seasonally- adjusted rates in the EU 28 at 10.3%, down from 10.4% the previous month, while in the 18 eurozone countries it remained at 11.6%.

The numbers have fallen just slightly over the past 12 months from 12% in the eurozone and 10.9% in the EU overall.

The decline is slow, but long-term unemployment continues to increase while households with low incomes are not seeing any improvement in their situation, Commissioner Andor said.

“In short, a mild recovery continues but it is still leaving many people behind,” he added.

Greece and Spain have the highest jobless numbers at 26.8% and 25%, while Austria has the lowest at 4.7% followed by Germany at 5.1%.

Youth unemployment rates have fallen from 23.6% to 22.2% in the EU 28 over the past 12 months, with close to 60% of Greek youths and 54% of Spanish out of work.