EUROSTAT European Union Statistical Office : Euro area unemployment at 7.9%

4/2019 - 9 January 2019

November 2018

Euro area unemployment at 7.9%

EU28 at 6.7%

The euro area (EA19) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 7.9% in November 2018, down from 8.0% in October 2018 and from 8.7% in November 2017. This is the lowest rate recorded in the euro area since October 2008. The EU28 unemployment rate was 6.7% in November 2018, stable compared with October 2018 and down from 7.3% in November 2017. This remains the lowest rate recorded in the EU28 since the start of the EU monthly unemployment series in January 2000. These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Eurostat estimates that 16.491 million men and women in the EU28, of whom 13.040 million in the euro area, were unemployed in November 2018. Compared with October 2018, the number of persons unemployed decreased by 107 000 in the EU28 and by 90 000 in the euro area. Compared with November 2017, unemployment fell by 1.489 million in the EU28 and by 1.135 million in the euro area.

Member States

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates in November 2018 were recorded in Czechia (1.9%),

Germany (3.3%) and the Netherlands (3.5%). The highest unemployment rates were observed in Greece (18.6%

in September 2018) and Spain (14.7%).

Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in all Member States except Estonia where it remained

stable. The largest decreases were registered in Croatia (from 10.0% to 7.8%), Greece (from 20.8% to 18.6%

between September 2017 and September 2018) and Spain (from 16.5% to 14.7%).

In November 2018, the unemployment rate in the United States was 3.7%, stable compared with October 2018

and down from 4.1% in November 2017.

Unemployment rates in November 2018, seasonally adjusted 25

20

18.6

15

%

10

5

0

Czechia

Germany

Netherlands

Hungary**

Malta

Poland

Romania

UK*

Austria

Denmark

Luxembourg

Slovenia

Estonia**

Ireland

Bulgaria

Belgium

Slovakia

Lithuania

Sweden

Portugal

EU28

Latvia

Finland

Croatia

EA19

France

Cyprus

Italy

Spain

Greece*

* September 2018 ** October 2018

Youth unemployment

In November 2018, 3.444 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU28, of whom 2.452 million were in the euro area. Compared with November 2017, youth unemployment decreased by 189 000 in the EU28 and by 90 000 in the euro area. In November 2018, the youth unemployment rate was 15.2% in the EU28 and 16.9% in the euro area, compared with 16.1% and 17.8% respectively in November 2017. In November 2018, the lowest rates were observed in Czechia (4.9%), Germany (6.1%) and the Netherlands (6.9%), while the highest were recorded in Greece (36.6% in September 2018), Spain (34.1%) and Italy (31.6%).

Geographical information

The euro area (EA19) includes Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The European Union (EU28) includes Belgium, Bulgaria, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

Methods and definitions

Eurostat produces harmonised unemployment rates for individual EU Member States, the euro area and the EU. These unemployment rates are based on the definition recommended by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The measurement is based on a harmonised source, the European Union Labour Force Survey (LFS).

Based on the ILO definition, Eurostat defines unemployed persons as persons aged 15 to 74 who:

• - are without work;

• - are available to start work within the next two weeks;

• - and have actively sought employment at some time during the previous four weeks.

The unemployment rate is the number of people unemployed as a percentage of the labour force.

The labour force is the total number of people employed plus unemployed. In this news release unemployment rates are based on employment and unemployment data covering persons aged 15 to 74.

The youth unemployment rate is the number of people aged 15 to 24 unemployed as a percentage of the labour force of the same age. Therefore, the youth unemployment rate should not be interpreted as the share of jobless people in the overall youth population.

When data for the most recent month are not available for a Member State, EU and EA aggregates are calculated using the latest data available for that Member State.

Country notes

Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Iceland: the trend component is used instead of the more volatile seasonally adjusted data.

Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Portugal, the United Kingdom and Norway: 3-month moving averages of LFS data are used instead of pure monthly indicators.

Revisions and timetable

The data in this News Release can be subject to revisions, caused by updates to the seasonally adjusted series whenever new monthly data are added; the inclusion of the most recent LFS data in the calculation process; update of seasonal adjustment models with complete annual data.

Compared with the rates published in News Release184/2018 of 30 November 2018, the October 2018 unemployment rate for EA19 has been revised downwards from 8.1% to 8.0%, while the rate for EU28 remained unchanged. Among Member States, the rate has been revised by more than 0.1 percentage points (pp) downwards for Belgium (by 0.7 pp), Slovakia (by 0.5 pp) and Austria (by 0.3 pp). The unemployment rate has been revised by more than 0.1 percentage points upwards for Cyprus (by 0.3 pp) and Luxembourg (by 0.2 pp).

For more information

Eurostatwebsite section on employment and unemployment

Eurostatdatabase section on unemployment, including non-seasonally adjusted and trend data EurostatStatistics Explained article on unemployment

EurostatStatistics Explained article on youth unemployment Eurostatmetadata on adjusted unemployment series Eurostat €-indicatorsrelease calendar

Issued by: Eurostat Press Office

Baiba GRANDOVSKA

Tel: [phone]

ec.europa.eu/eurostat/

EurostatStatisticsFor further information on data:

Boyan GENEV

Tel: [phone]

Thibaut HENRION

Tel: [phone]

@EU_EurostatMedia requests: Eurostat media support / Tel: [phone] /[e-mail]

Euro area and EU28 unemployment rates

Seasonally adjusted series

Euro area (EA19)

EU28

12

11

10

%

9

8

7

6

I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV	I II IIIIV
2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018

Seasonally adjusted unemployment, totals

Rates (%)					Number of persons (in thousands)
Nov 17	Aug 18	Sep 18	Oct 18	Nov 18	Nov 17	Aug 18	Sep 18	Oct 18	Nov 18
EA19	8.7	8.0	8.0	8.0	7.9	14 175	13 139	13 127	13 130	13 040
EU28	7.3	6.8	6.7	6.7	6.7	17 980	16 667	16 617	16 598	16 491
Belgium	6.4	5.7	5.5	5.5	5.6	318	291	280	281	285
Bulgaria	5.7	5.3	5.3	5.4	5.4	193	174	176	181	181
Czechia	2.4	2.3	2.2	2.1	1.9	129	126	117	111	103
Denmark	5.3	4.8	4.8	4.7	4.9	160	145	146	144	148
Germany	3.6	3.4	3.4	3.3	3.3	1 557	1 463	1 458	1 452	1 443
Estonia	5.3**	5.4	5.8	5.3	:	37**	38	41	37	:
Ireland	6.4	5.7	5.6	5.4	5.3	151	136	133	130	128
Greece	20.8*	18.9	18.6	:	:	998*	897	887	:	:
Spain	16.5	15.0	14.9	14.8	14.7	3 748	3 421	3 396	3 380	3 349
France	9.1	9.0	9.0	8.9	8.9	2 704	2 694	2 682	2 664	2 656
Croatia	10.0	8.3	8.1	8.0	7.8	182	150	146	143	139
Italy	11.0	10.1	10.4	10.6	10.5	2 859	2 616	2 694	2 760	2 735
Cyprus	10.2	8.5	8.6	8.8	9.2	43	37	38	39	41
Latvia	8.2	7.1	6.9	6.9	7.0	81	70	68	68	69
Lithuania	6.7	6.3	6.6	6.3	6.2	97	91	97	92	91
Luxembourg	5.4	5.4	5.2	5.2	5.0	16	16	15	15	15
Hungary	3.9**	3.8	3.7	3.7	:	181**	177	174	172	:
Malta	4.0	3.7	3.7	3.6	3.7	9	9	9	9	9
Netherlands	4.4	3.9	3.7	3.7	3.5	397	353	343	337	326
Austria	5.5	4.9	4.9	4.8	4.7	247	220	223	219	212
Poland	4.4	3.8	3.8	3.8	3.8	762	658	657	654	647
Portugal	8.1	6.9	6.6	6.6	6.6	417	359	341	342	343
Romania	4.8	4.1	3.9	4.0	3.9	427	371	355	370	358
Slovenia	5.7	5.2	5.2	5.2	5.1	59	54	53	53	53
Slovakia	7.6	6.3	6.2	6.1	6.0	209	174	171	168	166
Finland	8.4	7.3	7.2	7.2	7.1	229	201	198	196	196
Sweden	6.5	6.3	6.3	6.2	6.2	350	344	344	343	341
United Kingdom	4.2*	4.1	4.1	:	:	1 408*	1 368	1 365	:	:
Iceland	2.9	2.7	2.6	2.6	:	6	5	5	5	:
Norway	4**	4.0	4.0	4.0	:	111**	113	113	114	:
United States	4.1	3.9	3.7	3.7	3.7	6 642	6 208	5 990	6 057	5 987

The source datasets are availablehere (rates) andhere (in 1000 persons).

: Data not available * September 2017 ** October 2017

Seasonally adjusted youth (under 25s) unemployment

Rates (%)					Number of persons (in thousands)
Nov 17	Aug 18	Sep 18	Oct 18	Nov 18	Nov 17	Aug 18	Sep 18	Oct 18	Nov 18
EA19	17.8	16.9	17.0	17.1	16.9	2 542	2 428	2 452	2 480	2 452
EU28	16.1	15.2	15.3	15.3	15.2	3 633	3 409	3 441	3 469	3 444
Belgium	16.6	15.7	15.7	:	:	60	62	62	:	:
Bulgaria	11.0	13.8	13.2	13.8	14.2	19	20	19	21	22
Czechia	5.1	6.0	5.9	5.1	4.9	15	18	17	15	15
Denmark	9.8	9.3	9.0	8.4	8.4	45	42	41	39	39
Germany	6.5	6.2	6.2	6.1	6.1	275	262	261	260	258
Estonia	7.8	16.6	18.3	16.7	:	5	10	11	10	:
Ireland	13.3	13.9	13.5	12.9	12.3	36	40	40	39	38
Greece	44.4	36.8	36.6	:	:	110	88	88	:	:
Spain	36.7	34.5	34.3	34.6	34.1	552	519	526	533	522
France	21.2	21.1	21.3	21.6	21.8	593	611	625	642	653
Croatia	25.9	23.9	23.9	:	:	41	35	35	:	:
Italy	33.2	32.0	32.2	32.2	31.6	514	477	486	492	477
Cyprus	23.0	19.3	19.3	:	:	8	7	7	:	:
Latvia	17.5	9.6	9.6	10.3	10.5	11	7	7	7	7
Lithuania	13.0	10.1	10.7	10.6	10.6	14	12	13	13	13
Luxembourg	14.2	13.9	12.7	12.6	12.4	3	3	3	3	3
Hungary	10.4	10.0	9.9	10.1	:	35	33	33	34	:
Malta	10.6	10.2	11.2	11.4	11.9	3	3	3	4	4
Netherlands	7.8	7.7	7.5	7.2	6.9	112	112	109	105	101
Austria	10.1	8.7	9.3	9.3	8.8	54	46	49	49	47
Poland	14.2	12.2	12.4	12.5	12.3	187	156	159	160	158
Portugal	22.8	20.3	19.9	20.8	19.4	86	78	75	78	72
Romania	19.7	16.2	16.2	:	:	126	99	99	:	:
Slovenia	11.4	10.1	10.1	:	:	9	7	7	:	:
Slovakia	18.4	14.5	14.6	14.1	13.9	37	28	28	27	27
Finland	18.9	17.5	17.7	17.7	17.7	62	56	56	56	56
Sweden	17.0	17.0	16.8	17.1	16.7	106	105	105	105	105
United Kingdom	12.1	11.2	11.4	:	:	517	470	482	:	:
Iceland	7.2	6.7	6.5	6.4	:	2	2	2	2	:
Norway	10.1	9.8	10.1	10.4	:	37	36	38	39	:

The source datasets are availablehere (rates) andhere (in 1000 persons).

: Data not available

* Q2 2018 dataBelgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Romania and Slovenia: quarterly data