EU: Unemployment rises to 7.5% in September

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The EU's unemployment rate rose to 7.5% in September, up 0.9 percentage point year-on-year, the bloc's statistical office reported on Friday.

The eurozone unemployment rate was also up by 0.8 percentage point to 8.3% in the last month 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.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the unemployment rate has continued to rise for six consecutive months both in the EU and eurozone.

Eurostat said nearly 16 million men and women in the EU27, including 13.6 million in the euro area, were unemployed as of September.

The number of unemployed people was up by 42,000 on a monthly basis, and 1.8 million on a yearly basis in September, across the 27-member bloc.

The highest unemployment rates were posted by Greece (16.8%), Spain (16.5%), and Italy (9.6%), and the lowest by the Czech Republic (2.8%) and Poland (3.1%).

Meanwhile, there were some 2.99 million unemployed aged under 25 in the EU27 in September, making a 17.1% youth unemployment rate.

- Flash estimates

The statistical authority also announced that the EA's annual inflation rate is expected to be minus 0.3% in October versus the previous month.

"Looking at the main components of euro area inflation, food, alcohol & tobacco is expected to have the highest annual rate in October (2.0%), followed by services (0.4%), non-energy industrial goods (-0.1%) and energy (-8.4%)," it added.

According to another flash estimate, the EU and EA's GDP figures will narrow by 3.9% and 4.3% respectively in the third quarter of 2020.