The unemployment rate in the eurozone amounted to 6.5% in May 2023, a stable figure compared to the previous month, and a slight decrease compared to May 2022.
Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, reported the new figures on Friday. In Belgium, the unemployment rate stood at 5.7%, a stable level over one year.
A total of 12.937 million people were unemployed in the European Union in May 2023, including 11.014 million in the eurozone. This means a decrease of 75,000 individuals in the EU and 57,000 individuals in the eurozone compared to April.
The drop is more significant over one year: 257,000 fewer unemployed people in the EU, including 227,000 in the eurozone, compared to May 2022.
The highest unemployment rates in the European Union were recorded in Spain (12.7%) and Greece (10.8%), while Czechia (2.4%) and Poland (2.7 %) enjoyed the highest employment rates.
Among young people too, the unemployment rate is expected to fall. It stood at 13.9% in May 2023 both in the eurozone and in the European Union as a whole. This figure is stable compared to the rate recorded twelve months earlier.
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The unemployment rate for women (6.8%) is still higher than that for men (6.2%) across the eurozone. On an annual basis, these figures are decreasing.
Eurostat data uses the International Labour Office (ILO) definition of unemployment. Unemployed persons are considered to be people out of work who have actively sought new work in the previous four weeks and are available to start working within in the next two weeks.
