The unemployment rate in the euro zone reached its historic low in January, at 6.8% of the working population, down 0.2 points from the previous month, Eurostat announced on Thursday.
In December, this indicator had already fallen to the lowest since April 1998, when the European statistics office started compiling this series.
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The labor market has benefited from the strong rebound in the European economy since the spring of 2021, after the historic recession linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.
For the EU as a whole, unemployment also hit a historic low, at 6.2% in January.
The European economy, driven by France and Italy, overcame the impact of the pandemic last year, recording record growth.
The gross domestic product (GDP) of the euro zone increased by 5.2% in 2021, as in the whole of the EU.
And the economic indicators were still positive for the first months of the year, despite the restrictions imposed by the new wave of contaminations with the Omicron variant.
13.35 million unemployed citizens in the European Union
Mechanically, these exceptional figures have caused an unprecedented improvement in the job market.
Over one year, in January, unemployment fell by 1.4 points in the euro zone and by 1.3 points in the EU.
However, some 13.35 million men and women remained unemployed in the EU, including 11.23 million in the euro zone, according to Eurostat.
The war in Ukraine, which is likely to penalize activity, casts a shadow over the outlook for the coming months.
But the European Commission does not believe, at this stage, that the economy is threatened with recession.
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The conflict "
is likely to have a negative impact on European growth, through repercussions on financial markets, increased pressure on energy prices, prolonged disruptions to supply chains and effects on confidence
" consumers and investors, acknowledged on Wednesday the Commissioner for the Economy, Paolo Gentiloni.
However, he believes for the time being that the invasion of Ukraine by Russia “
will not derail the expansion in progress
”, even if it will “
weaken
it ”.
Brussels currently forecasts 4% GDP growth in 2022, but this forecast should be lowered during a new estimate in the spring.
Among EU member countries, the highest unemployment rates in January were recorded in Spain (11.2%), Greece (10.4%) and Italy (8%).
In France, 7.3% of the active population was unemployed, compared to 3.5% in Germany.
The Czech Republic (1.9%) and Poland (2.8%) had the lowest unemployment rates.
