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VW employees with mouth and nose protection
Photo: Swen Pförtner / DPA
Despite the shutdown in many countries, unemployment has fallen in the euro zone.
In November, the seasonally adjusted rate in the entire currency area fell from 8.4 to 8.3 percent, as reported by the European statistics agency Eurostat.
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Compared to the same month last year, however, it was 1.1 percentage points higher.
The measures to contain the corona pandemic are apparently decisive for the higher unemployment compared to November 2019.
Their consequences are, however, considerably dampened by far-reaching state support programs, for example in Germany by generous regulations on short-time work.
Eurostat estimates that 13.6 million people are currently unemployed in the euro area.
In the European Union there are therefore 15.9 million people.
There were comparatively low values for the unemployment rate in November in the Netherlands (4.0 percent) and Germany (4.5 percent).
The highest values were recorded in Spain (16.4 percent) and Greece (16.1 percent in September).
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bah / Reuters / dpa