06/10/2016
Eurozone Unemployment Rate Update
I thought I’d take a look at the improvement, or lack thereof, in the unemployment rate for the eurozone (EA19) the past 30 months...Oct. 2013 to April 2016, per Eurostat’s most recent data as released last week.
EA19...11.9% [Oct. 2013]...10.2% [Apr. 2016]
Germany...5.1%...4.2%
France...10.2%...9.9%
Italy...12.3%...11.7%
Spain...26.0%...20.1%
Greece...27.8% (Aug. 2013)...24.2% (Feb. 2016)
Ireland...12.4%...8.4%
U.K. ...7.6%...4.9%
U.S. ...7.2%...5.0%*
*April...then declined to 4.7% with the May jobs report, released last week.
So you can see that in the case of France and Italy, progress has been sclerotic. With both it is about the failure to enact real labor reforms, which in the case of France you’ve seen a good recent example of the brushback to same with the major demonstrations on the part of organized labor against highly minimal reforms the government of President Francois Hollande is trying to enact.
Ireland’s bounceback is impressive. The unemployment rate there peaked at around 15%.
Source: Eurostat
Wall Street History will return in two weeks.
Brian Trumbore
