Living and working in Europe 2019 published by EuroFound (2020).
“How did employment fare in 2019?
The EU labour market continued to perform well in 2019, with employment growing for the sixth consecutive year. The employment rate again reached a record high – 73.9% among 20–64-year-olds – in the second quarter of the year. Had this trend continued at the same pace into the present year, the EU might have reached the target employment rate of 75% by 2020 set by the Europe 2020 growth strategy. However, the COVID-19 shutdowns have scuppered all prospects of reaching that goal, and at this stage, it is difficult to see when it might once again be within sight.
Strong job creation over the year cut unemployment further, down to 6.2% in December 2019 from 6.6% a year earlier (among the wider 15–74 years age group), the lowest rate recorded in the EU since Eurostat launched its EU monthly unemployment series in January 2000. But the downward trend was not uniform across the Member States. While the rate fell in 21 countries and remained stable in one (Denmark), it increased marginally in Cyprus, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Portugal and Sweden, by 0.2–0.4 percentages points. And while Greece and Spain continued to grapple with unemployment rates well above the EU average – 16.6% and 13.7%, respectively – Greece, nevertheless, saw the biggest reduction over the year, with a drop from 18.5% to 16.6%…”
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