Unemployment in the eurozone dips in May

Unemployment in the eurozone dipped lower in May, official data showed yesterday, with the European job market spared the worst effects on the pandemic.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics agency, said unemployment fell to 7.9 percent in the 19 countries that use the euro single currency, 0.1 percentage points lower than April.

The unemployment rate for the EU as a whole followed a similar trend, declining 0.1 percentage points over a month to 7.3 percent.

Youth unemployment in the eurozone, which has risen more sharply during the COVID crisis, was at 17.5 percent.

The data still remained higher than a year before, just before a second wave of lockdowns crushed the economy, when unemployment in the eurozone was 7.5 percent.