EU reports 6.5% February unemployment rate

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - The EU's unemployment rate stood at 6.5% in February, down from 6.9% in the same month last year, the bloc's statistical office reported on Wednesday.

"This remains the lowest rate recorded in the EU since the start of the monthly unemployment series in February 2000," Eurostat said in a press release.

Estimating that 13.984 million men and women in the EU were unemployed last February, it said that compared with February 2019, unemployment fell by 784,000.

Czechia, Poland and the Netherlands posted record-low unemployment rates with 2%, 2.9% and 2.9%, respectively, in the month.

The highest rates were seen in Greece with 16.3%, and in Spain with 13.6% in the same month.

"Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in 19 Member States, remained stable in Germany and Portugal," read the press release.

"It increased Czechia (from 1.9% to 2.0%), Romania (from 3.8% to 3.9%), Luxembourg (from 5.4% to 5.7%), Estonia (from 4.2% to 4.7% between January 2019 and January 2020), Lithuania (from 6.0% to 6.6%) and Sweden (from 6.6% to 7.2%)," it added.

Eurostat data also indicated there were some 2.73 million of unemployed comprised young people under 25 years old in the EU27 in January, making for a youth unemployment rate of 14.9%.

The highest youth unemployment figures were seen in Greece, Spain and Italy, and the lowest in Czechia, Germany and the Netherlands.