The euro zone unemployment rate continued to decline in July, affecting 7.6% of the working population, after 8% in May and 7.8% in June, Eurostat announced on Wednesday.
The rebound in the European economy since the spring, after the shock linked to the coronavirus pandemic, is reflected in the labor market.
For the European Union as a whole, unemployment also fell by 0.2 point over one month to 6.9% in July, according to the European Statistics Office.
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Some 14.6 million men and women were unemployed in the EU in July, including 12.3 million in the 19 countries sharing the common currency.
Over one year, the improvement is clear.
Unemployment affected 8.4% of the working population in the euro area in July 2020 and 7.6% in the EU.
Strong disparities between countries
It is even more marked among young people (under 25), the first victims last year of the recession linked to health restrictions which paralyzed entire sections of the economy.
Their unemployment rate fell 0.7 point over one month in July to 16.5%.
A year ago, it peaked at 19.4%.
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By country, and for the population as a whole, the lowest rate in July was recorded in the Czech Republic (2.8%) and the highest in Greece (14.6%). Among the heavyweights in the euro zone, Germany still posted the best performance (3.6%), far ahead of France (7.9%), Italy (9.3%) and Spain (14 , 3%).