Spain remains for the eleventh consecutive month as the country in the entire Eurozone with the highest unemployment rate, 12.4%, at a time when unemployment registers a record low among the countries that share the common currency despite the a situation of uncertainty generated by the war in Ukraine, high energy prices and an inflation rate that continues to skyrocket (it stood at 9.2% in December). The data published this Monday by Eurostat, the community statistics office, confirm that the unemployment rate stands at 6.5% for the second month in the region as a whole.
The downward trend in unemployment also occurs in the European Union as a whole, which registers a level of 6%, also identical to that marked the previous month and which also represents its lowest record since these statistics were compiled. The Eurozone unemployment rate thus remains nine tenths below the level registered before the Covid-19 pandemic hit the region with more virulence, given that in February 2020 unemployment among the countries of the euro stood at 7.4%.
In volume, there are more than 12.95 million people without a job in the Union, of which the vast majority (10.849 million) are in the Eurozone. In a single month, the eleventh of the year, unemployment has increased by 10,000 people in the Twenty-seven, while it has fallen by more than 2,000 in the euro zone. The year-on-year data show a more positive balance, since unemployment fell in both areas by 875,000 and 846,000, respectively, in relation to November 2021, when some of the restrictions that were approved to deal with Covid were still in force. .
The great pending account of the Spanish economy
Behind Spain are Greece, with 11.4% of its active population unemployed; and Italy, with 7.8%. Meanwhile, the Czech Republic (2.7%), Poland and Germany (3% each) registered the lowest unemployment rates, despite the fact that the last two were especially affected by the situation in Ukraine, given their greater dependence on the Russian economy. These data show how unemployment continues to be one of the largest pending accounts in the Spanish economy, which registers the lowest inflation levels at the community level (5.8% in December according to Statistics) and for the international (organisms in the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund or the club of more developed countries that make up the OECD) rule out a recession that they do take for granted, for example, in the German case.
