The average unemployment rate in the European Union (EU) was 7.1% in April 2018, which is 7 tenths less than in the same month of the previous year, according to the latest comparative figures provided by Eurostat, the EU's statistical office.
In the euro area (comprising 19 countries), the average unemployment rate was slightly higher than that of the EU as a whole: 8.5% compared to 9.2% in April 2017.
In both cases, these are the best figures achieved since 2008.
By country, the one with the lowest percentage of unemployed in April of this year was the Czech Republic, with an unemployment rate of only 2.2%. Malta had 3% unemployment and Germany 3.4%.
In contrast, the countries with the highest unemployment rates were Greece (20.8% in February of this year) and Spain (15.9% in April).
Youth unemployment rate
Eurostat has also presented the figures for the youth unemploymentin the different EU countries. The average number of people under 25 years old without employment in the whole of theEUwas 15.3% in April of this year and 17.2% in the Eurozone.By country, the worst data in this ranking corresponded to Greece (45.4% in February of this year), Spain (34.4% in April), and Italy (33.1%).
The lowest youth unemployment rate corresponded to Germany (6%), followed by Malta (6.8%) and Netherlands (6.9%).