According to seasonally adjusted data, the unemployment rate in the European Union was 5.9 percent in May. It remained at the same level as in April. Compared to May last year, it fell by 0.1 percentage points. This was reported today by the European statistical office Eurostat. Unemployment was lowest in Malta and the Czech Republic. Eurostat uses a different methodology than the Czech Labor Office.
Eurostat estimate
In the eurozone itself, the unemployment rate rose to 6.3 percent from 6.2 percent in April. Last May, unemployment in the eurozone countries was 6.4 percent.
Malta had the lowest unemployment rate at 2.7 percent. In the Czech Republic, it was 2.8 percent. In both countries, unemployment rose slightly by 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous month. Unemployment was highest in Spain, where it reached 10.8 percent. In Finland, it was nine percent.
Eurostat estimates that 13.052 million people were unemployed in the EU in May, of which 10.830 million were in the eurozone. Compared to April, the number of unemployed in the EU increased by 48,000 and in the eurozone by 54,000. Year-on-year, the number of unemployed fell by 23,000 in the EU and by 168,000 in the eurozone.
Standard definition
The youth unemployment rate rose by 0.1 percentage points in both the EU and the eurozone, to 14.8 percent in the EU and 14.6 percent in the eurozone. Eurostat considers people under the age of 25 to be young.
Eurostat bases its calculations on the generally used standard definition of unemployment by the International Labor Organization (ILO). It counts as unemployed those who have actively sought work in the last four weeks and are available to start work in the next two weeks.
In the case of the Czech Republic, Eurostat uses data from the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ), which differ from the data of the Czech Labor Office. According to the latter, the unemployment rate in the Czech Republic fell to 4.2 percent in May from 4.3 percent in April, reaching its lowest level this year. The ČSÚ bases its unemployment rate on a labor force sample survey, while the Labor Office bases its figures on the number of registered job seekers.
Source: ČTK
