In October 2021, the unemployment rate in the EU remained unchanged compared to September while in the euro area and Croatia it went down again, Eurostat said in a report on Thursday.

The EU unemployment rate in October 2021 remained unchanged compared to September at 6.7%, while euro area unemployment slid by 0.1 percentage points to 7.3%.

The unemployment rate almost reached the level of February 2020 prior to the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. Unemployment then was 6.6% in the EU and 7.4% in the euro area.

Eurostat estimates that 14.312 million men and women in the EU were unemployed in October, 12.045 million of whom are in the euro area.

Compared to September 2021 that is 77,000 fewer in the EU and 64,000 fewer in the euro area, whereas in comparison to October 2020 that was 1.65 million fewer in the EU and 1.564 million fewer in the euro area.

Croatia alongside Latvia

Spain and Greece were the only two member states with double-digit unemployment rates in October 2021, of 14.5% and 12.9% respectively. The lowest rates were reported by the Czech Republic (2.6%), the Netherlands (2.9%), Poland (3.4%) and Germany (3.3%).

In Croatia, the unemployment rate fell to 7.0% from 7.3% in September. It was its lowest rate since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, when it amounted to 6.5%. In pre-pandemic February 2020, it was 5.9%.

Croatia was alongside Latvia, which recorded an unemployment rate of 7.0% in October 2021.

According to Eurostat, 125,000 Croatians were out of work in October 2021, about 6,000 fewer than in September. Compared with October 2020, their number decreased by 29,000.

Youth unemployment continues to fall

In October 2021, the youth unemployment rate was 15.9% in the EU and the euro area, down 0.1 and 0.2 percentage points respectively from the previous month. In October 2020, unemployment in the EU was 17.6% and 18.2% in the euro area.

In October 2021, 2.905 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU, of whom 2.367 million were in the euro area. Compared with September 2021, youth unemployment decreased by 2,000 in the EU and by 9,000 in the euro area.

Compared with October 2020, youth unemployment decreased by 165.000 in both the EU and the euro area.

The highest youth unemployment rates were recorded in Greece (33.2%), Spain (30.3%) and Italy (28.2%), while the lowest rates were observed in Germany (6.9%), the Netherland (6.9%) and the Czech Republic (7.8%).

Croatia is not required to submit monthly data on youth unemployment. In the period from July to September 2021, its youth unemployment rate was 20%, with 28,000 young people out of work.

The number of unemployed young people declined by 8,000 compared to the same period last year and by 7,000 compared to the previous quarter, according to Eurostat.