The 19-member eurozone unemployment rate still stood at 8.4% in May, the EU's statistics body Eurostat announced. This remains the lowest rate recorded in the euro area since December 2008.
Eurostat cut its estimate of the jobless rate in April from 8.5% to 8.4%. Analysts had expected the figure to be unrevised at 8.5%.
The number of unemployed across the eurozone fell by 125,000 to 13.656 million in May. It was the lowest rate recorded in the EU28 in a decade.
The lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Czech Republic (2.3%) and Germany (3.4%), and the highest rates were seen in Greece (20.1%) and Spain (15.8%). In France, unemployment rate reached 9.2% in May. Italy’s jobless rate fell to 10.7% from 11% previously, while Spain’s unemployment rate declined to 15.8% from 16%.
According to the European Commission, the euro area economic sentiment has significantly deteriorated in the past month. The decline has been recorded during six months in a row. Worsening sentiment indicates the cooling of the European economy. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank is about to end its bond-buying program.
