Unemployment across the euro zone fell to a record low of 6.4 percent, highlighting the continued strength of the labor market despite a series of interest rate hikes in recent years.
New data from the EU's statistics agency Eurostat shows that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 6.4% in April from 6.5% in March 2024. The unadjusted unemployment rate stood at 6% in April 2024, stable compared to March 2024 and April 2023.
Eurostat estimates that in April 2024, 13.149 million people will be unemployed in the EU, of which 10.998 million will be unemployed in the euro area. Compared to April 2023, the number of unemployed people in the EU increased by 95,000, while in the euro area it decreased by 101,000.
The youth unemployment rate stood at 14.4% across the EU, down from 14.7% in March 2024, and 14.1% in the euro area, down from 14.3% the previous month.
Spain (11.7%) and Greece (10.8%) had the highest unemployment rates in April, while the Czech Republic (2.7%) and Poland (3%) had the lowest. Ireland's unemployment rate in April was 4.4%.
Unemployment in the euro zone rose to more than 12% at the peak of the euro zone crisis in 2013 but has since fallen steadily before briefly rising during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The data suggests that interest rate hikes imposed by the European Central Bank (ECB) to fight inflation have not had a negative impact on the labor market.
There is a growing view that the ECB's Governing Council meeting next week will end two years of rate hikes and lead to a cut in interest rates.
According to the CSO's latest Labour Force Survey for Ireland, the employment rate for 15-64 year olds was 73.8% in the first quarter of this year.
The number of employed people increased by 51,500 (1.9%) over the past year to 2.7 million.
According to the CSO, the number of long-term unemployed (those unemployed for 12 months or more) was 28,800, down 3,400 from the same period last year.
