New Eurostat report shows that Croatia experienced the highest falls in employment rates in the EU in July this year. However, Croatia still has a double-digit unemployment rate along with four other countries in the EU.
According to Eurostat latest report, in July this year, Croatia recorded the biggest drop in the annual unemployment rate among EU member states, but unemployment rates still remain in the double digits, along with four other Mediterranean countries, reports Jutarnji.hr on September 1, 2017.
In July 2017, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate slipped to 10.6 percent, from the revised 10.7 percent in the previous month. Eurostat previous report showed a rate of 10.6 percent in June. According to the report published by the EU statistical office on Thursday, there were 189,000 unemployed people in Croatia in July, about a thousand less than in June. As a result, the number of unemployed persons decreased by about 52,000 on an annual basis, suggesting that the unemployment rate in Croatia decreased by 2,6 percentage points compared to July last year.
Among the countries with the largest drop in the unemployment rate on an annual basis is Spain, with recorded unemployment rate fall of 2.5 percentage points, followed by Slovakia and Cyprus, with unemployment rates falling by 2.4 and 2.2 percentage points respectively.
Compared to the year before, the fall in unemployment rates is recorded by all EU member states whose data are comparable for that period, with the exception of Finland where the rate has remained unchanged.
The highest rates of unemployment in the EU are still recorded in Greece, 21.7 percent recorded in May, and Spain, with a 17.1 percent unemployment rate recorded in July. Among countries with double-digit unemployment rates are Italy, with 11.3 percent, and Cyprus with 10.8 percent [and Croatia, with 10.6 percent].
In the EU, the unemployment rate for the third consecutive month is 7.7 percent, which is the lowest since December 2008.In the eurozone, the unemployment rate on the monthly basis remained unchanged, stagnating at 9.1 percent, the lowest since February 2009.
Eurostat estimates that there were 18,916 million unemployed in the EU in July, of which 14.86 million in the eurozone. At a monthly level, the number fell by 93,000 in the EU and by 73,000 in the eurozone, while on the annual basis, the number decreased by 1,928 million in the EU and by 1,309 million in the eurozone.
The lowest rates of unemployment among member states are still recorded by the Czech Republic, 2.9 percent, Germany, 3.7 percent, and Malta, by 4.1 percent.
Of the EU countries in Croatia's immediate vicinity, Slovenia recorded an unemployment rate of 7 percent, whereas Hungary had 4.3 percent rate recorded in June, Eurostat reports.
Youth unemployment rate in the EU is stagnating
The unemployment rate among young people up to 25 years old in the EU remained at 16.9 percent, while in the eurozone it increased by 0.1 percentage points to 19.1 percent. In July 2016, the youth unemployment rate in the EU was 18.7 percent and in the eurozone 20.8 percent. In the EU, 3.792 million young unemployed persons were registered in July, of which 2,670 million in the eurozone.At the annual level, this number decreased by 450 thousand in the EU and by 272 thousand in the eurozone.
Germany had the lowest youth unemployment rate (6.5 percent), while the highest rates were recorded in Greece with 44.4 percent recorded in May, followed by Spain with 38.6 percent and Italy with 35.5 percent.
In Croatia, the youth unemployment rate in the second quarter was 26.4 percent. According to Eurostat reports for the previous month, the unemployment rate was 25.9 percent.
According to recent data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the registered unemployment rate in Croatia remained unchanged in July, measuring at 10.8%.This is the lowest since 2000 (when CBS has been following this indicator).
Translated from Jutarnji.hr
