EU unemployment up 7.3% y-o-y in March

By Yunus Girgin

ANKARA (AA) – The EU's unemployment rate rose to 7.3% year-on-year in March, up from 6.4%, the bloc's statistical office said on Friday.

The eurozone unemployment rate was also up from 7.1% to 8.1% in the third month of 2021 on a yearly basis, Eurostat said in a press release.

The eurozone/euro area or EA19 represents member states that use the single currency – euro – while the EU27 includes all member countries of the bloc.

Eurostat said over 15.5 million men and women in the EU27, including 13.1 million in the euro area, were unemployed as of March.

The number of unemployed people, however, was down by 237,000 on a monthly basis and rose by around two million on a yearly basis in March across the bloc.

"The COVID-19 outbreak and the measures applied to combat it have triggered a sharp increase in the number of claims for unemployment benefits across the EU," said the office.

Meanwhile, there were some 2.95 million people younger than 25 unemployed in the EU in March, marking a 17.1% youth unemployment rate.

The unemployment rate in the EU for women was 7.7% in the month, while it was 7.0% for men.

In March, the highest unemployment rates were posted by Spain (15.3%), Italy (10.1%), and Lithuania (8.9%), and the lowest by Poland (3.1%) and the Czech Republic (3.2%).