In June 2022, the EU unemployment rate was 6.0 percent and the euro zone unemployment rate was 6.6 percent, while in Croatia the rate was 6.3 percent, the European Union's statistics bureau Eurostat said on Monday.

The EU seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 6.0% in June 2022, stable compared with May 2022 and down from 7.2% in June 2021. The rate for the euro area was 6.6%, also stable compared with May 2022 and down from 7.9% in June 2021.

Eurostat estimates that 12.931 million men and women in the EU, of whom 10.925 million in the euro area, were unemployed in June 2022. Compared with June 2021, unemployment decreased by 2.311 million in the EU and by 1.957 million in the euro area.

Croatia alongside Latvia

Spain and Greece were the only two EU member states to record double-digit unemployment rates, of 12.6% and 12.3% respectively.

In Croatia, the unemployment rate was 6.3%, up by 0.1 percentage point from May 2022 and down from 7.7% in June 2021. A total of 114,000 Croatians were out of work in June 2022, a thousand more than in May 2022 and 25,000 fewer than in June 2021.

Closest to Croatia was Latvia, with an unemployment rate of 6.4%.

The lowest rates were recorded in the Czech Republic (2.4%), Poland (2.7%), Germany (2.8%). Malta and Hungary (both 3.0%)

Youth unemployment

In June 2022, 2.546 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU, of whom 2.073 million were in the euro area. The youth unemployment rate was 13.6% in both the EU and the euro area, up from 13.3% in the EU and up from 13.2% in the euro area.

Compared with May 2022, youth unemployment increased by 59,000 in the EU and by 64,000 in the euro area. Compared with June 2021, youth unemployment decreased by 527,000 in the EU and by 450,000 in the euro area.

The lowest youth unemployment rates were observed in Germany and Ireland (both 5.4%), while the highest rates were registered in Greece (29.5%), Spain (27.9%), Italy (23.1%) and Sweden (21.3%).

In the second quarter of 2022, Croatia recorded a youth unemployment rate of 15.9%, with 23,000 young people out of work. In the first quarter, the rate was 16.1% and the number of jobless persons was also 23,000.