EU unemployment rate at 6.5% in March

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas</p> <p>ANKARA (AA) – Unemployment in the EU stood at 6.4% in March, the bloc's statistical office announced Tuesday. </p> <p>Eurostat said the figure fell from 6.5% in the previous month, and dropped from 7% in the same month last year.</p> <p>&quot;The euro area (EA19) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 7.7% in March 2019, down from 7.8% in February 2019 and from 8.5% in March 2018,&quot; the statistical office said.</p> <p>The eurozone/euro area or EA19 represents member states that use the single currency — euro — while the EU28 includes all member countries of the bloc.</p> <p>&quot;Eurostat estimates that 15.9 million men and women in the EU28, of whom 12.6 million in the euro area, were unemployed in March 2019,&quot; it said.</p> <p>The number of people unemployed across the 28-member bloc fell by 172,000 month-on-month, and decreased by 1.43 million on a yearly basis.</p> <p>March's lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Czech Republic with 1.9% and in Germany with 3.2%.</p> <p>The highest figures were seen in Greece (18.5% in January 2019, the latest available figures), Spain (14%), and Italy with 10.2%.</p> <p>Eurostat also said there were 3.28 million unemployed young people — under 25 — in the EU28 as of March, with a 14.5% youth unemployment rate. </p> <p>The highest youth unemployment figures were observed in Greece, Spain, and Italy, and the lowest in Germany, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands.