30.09.201905:18:00UTC+00Eurozone Jobless Rate Unexpectedly Falls, Lowest Since May 2008

Eurozone unemployment rate unexpectedly dropped in August to its lowest level in more than a decade, preliminary data from Eurostat showed on Monday.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 7.4 percent from 7.5 percent in July. Economists had expected the rate to remain unchanged.

The latest unemployment rate was the lowest since May 2008, Eurostat said. In August 2018, the jobless rate was 8 percent.

In August, the number of unemployed in the euro area were 12.169 million, down 115,000 persons from July and by 960,000 from a year ago.

The youth unemployment rate in the euro area was 15.4 percent in August versus 16.8 percent in the same month last year.

In the EU28, the unemployment rate eased to 6.2 percent from 6.3 percent in the previous month. The latest rate was the lowest since the start of the EU monthly unemployment series in January 2000, the agency said.

The number of unemployed in the EU28 totaled 15.432 million in August, down by 111,000 from the previous month and by 1.189 million from the same month last year.

Among the EU countries, the lowest jobless rate was recorded in the Czech Republic, 2 percent, and the highest in Greece, 17 percent.

The youth unemployment rate for the EU28 was 14.2 percent in August versus 15.1 percent a year ago. The number of youth unemployed totaled 3.138 million persons under 25.