Euro zone unemployment fell to its lowest level in four-and-a-half years in January, official data showed today, beating forecasts from analysts worried about the effects of a faltering global economy.
The Eurostat statistics agency said unemployment in the euro zone dropped to 10.3% in January from 10.4% in December, its lowest rate since August 2011.
Analysts had expected the January figure to be unchanged at 10.4%, taking into account the sharp slowdown in China and turbulence on the global financial markets.
By headcount, there were some 16.65 million jobless in the euro zone in January, down a solid 105,000 from December and 1.4 million less compared with January 2015.
As usual, the level of unemployment diverged widely across the euro zone. Greece and Spain continued to have the highest jobless rates, at 24.6% and 20.5%, while economic powerhouse Germany was on 4.3%.
This compared with 10.2% in France where the government is at pains to introduce fiercely contested labour reforms.
Unemployment across the 28-country EU also dropped, falling to 8.9% in January from 9% in December and compared to 9.8% in January 2015.
Youth unemployment in the euro zone also fell to 22% from 22.8% the year before. This figure stood at 48% in Greece and at 45% in Spain.
The rate of youth joblessness in Italy, the third biggest economy in the euro zone, was at 39.3% in the period.
