ZAGREB, March 11, 2020 - The pace of hiring in the European Union accelerated in the fourth quarter of 2019 both on the quarter and on the year, with the same trend being recorded in Croatia, Eurostat said in its revised estimate on Tuesday.
In the fourth quarter of 2019, the number of employed persons in the 27-member bloc rose by 0.3% from the previous quarter, following an increase of 0.1% in the third quarter. This raised the initial estimate for last year's final quarter by 0.1 percentage point.
Year-on-year, the number of employed persons increased by 1%, which is 0.1 percentage point more than Eurostat's February estimate. In the third quarter, the number of employed persons went up by 0.9%.
In Croatia the number of employed persons in Q4 increased by 0.7% on the quarter. Compared with an increase of 0.5% in the third quarter, this points to a slightly accelerated pace of hiring. On an annual level, it rose by 1.9% in the fourth quarter after going up 0.9% in the third quarter.
In 2019, the number of employed persons in the EU went up by 1%, following a 1.4% increase in 2018.
In the fourth quarter, a total of 209.3 million citizens were employed in the EU, which is the highest number of employed persons since Eurostat started publishing data. It is by 15.1 million higher than the lowest number of employed persons in the EU recorded in the post-crisis period in Q1 2013.
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