According to seasonally adjusted data, the unemployment rate in the European Union (EU) fell by a tenth of a percentage point to 5.9% in November. The statistical office Eurostat reported this in their announcement on Tuesday. The lowest unemployment rate was recorded in the Czech Republic, with a value of 2.4%. In countries using the euro, the unemployment rate also fell by a tenth of a point, bringing it to 6.4%.
This result is somewhat surprising for analysts. They had expected a stagnation or slight increase in unemployment. A year earlier, in November 2022, the unemployment rate in the EU was 6.1%, and in the eurozone, it was 6.7%.
Eurostat estimates that in November last year, there were 12.95 million people unemployed in the EU, including 10.97 million in the eurozone. Compared to October, the number of unemployed people in the EU decreased by 144,000 and in the eurozone by 99,000. On a year-on-year basis, the number of unemployed people in the entire Union decreased by 283,000 and in countries using the euro by 282,000.
In the case of the Czech Republic, Eurostat uses data from the Czech Statistical Office (CSO), which differs from the data from the Labor Office of the Czech Republic. According to these, the unemployment rate in the Czech Republic remained at 3.5% in November. The CSO calculates the unemployment rate based on a sample survey of the labor force, while the Office of Labor counts the number of registered job applicants. The office also released figures for December, when the unemployment rate rose to 3.7%.
The unemployment rate among young people in the age category up to 25 years, in both the EU and the eurozone, fell by three-tenths of a percentage point to 14.5% in November compared to October. While 2.81 million young people were unemployed in the EU, their number in the eurozone was 2.32 million.