May 4, 2023 - The unemployment rate in the eurozone decreased marginally in March, dropping by 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous month, and unemployment in Croatia decreased by the same amount, according to a Wednesday Eurostat report. In the 20-member eurozone, the unemployment rate measured by the International Labor Organization (ILO) methodology was 6.5 percent in March, dropping from 6.6 percent in comparison to February, according to data from the European Statistical Office.
In the EU, as Index writes, it was six percent, remaining at the previous month's level. For comparison, in March 2022, it reached 6.8 percent in the eurozone and 6.2 percent in the EU. Eurostat estimates there were 12.96 million unemployed in the EU in March 2023, of which 11.01 million were in the eurozone.
A comparison with February shows that the number of unemployed in the EU decreased by 155,000 and in the Eurozone by 121,000. On an annual level, their number decreased by 353 thousand in the Union and by 365 thousand in the eurozone.
Croatia in the company of Lithuania and Slovakia
Spain and Greece are still the only ones with a double-digit unemployment rate, which reached 12.8 and 10.9 percent in March, respectively. Italy and Sweden follow, with unemployment rates of 7.8 and 7.3 percent, respectively. In Croatia, the unemployment rate measured by the ILO methodology was 6.2 percent in March, dropping from 6.3 percent in February. In March 2022, it amounted to 6.7 percent.
According to Eurostat data, 112,000 citizens were unemployed in Croatia in March, three thousand fewer than in the previous month, according to revised data. The tables show that compared to the same month last year; their number decreased by 10,000.
The closest to Croatia in March were Slovakia and Lithuania, with an unemployment rate of six and 6.4 percent. The Czech Republic had the lowest unemployment rate in March, at 2.6 percent. Germany and Poland follow, with 2.8 percent, and Malta is close behind, with an unemployment rate of 2.9 percent.
Marginal drop in youth unemployment
The unemployment rate of citizens under the age of 25 was 14.3 percent in the eurozone in March, having slipped by 0.1 percentage point on a monthly basis. At the same time, in the EU, it dropped by 0.2 percentage points to 14.3 percent. In March of last year, Eurostat tables show it was 14.2 percent in both areas.
The statistical office estimates that 2.76 million young people were unemployed in the EU in March, of which 2.26 million were in the eurozone. The number of unemployed young people in the eurozone in March was thus higher by 91 thousand than in the same period in 2022, and in the EU by 105 thousand, Eurostat announced.
Four above 20 percent
Spain had the highest youth unemployment rate in March, at 29.5 percent. Greece follows with 24.2 percent, Italy with 22.3 percent, and Sweden with 21.9 percent. Among the EU countries with data available to Eurostat, Germany had by far the lowest youth unemployment rate, at 5.6 percent. Austria and Slovenia follow, with 7.6 and 7.9 percent, respectively.
In the first quarter of 2023, Croatia had an unemployment rate in that age group of 17.4 percent, with 26,000 unemployed, according to a Eurostat report. For the sake of comparison, in the fourth quarter of last year, it recorded an unemployment rate of a revised 17.9 percent, with 27,000 unemployed youth, according to the tables of the European Statistical Office. Eurostat did not only have data on youth unemployment in Romania.
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