Employment up 0.3% in Q1, as vacancies drop

Just as the government said its plan to hire 3,000 career soldiers to relieve the unemployment problem, EU statistics showed that employment rose by 0.3% in the first quarter, at the same pace as both the Eurozone and the EU28.

Year-on-year, employment rose by 1.6%, according to Eurostat.

In the fourth quarter of 2015, employment increased by 0.3% in the euro area and by 0.4% in the EU28. These figures are seasonally adjusted. Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, employment increased by 1.4% in both zones in the first quarter of 2016 (after +1.2% in the euro area and +1.3% in the EU28 in the fourth quarter of 2015). Eurostat estimates that, in the first quarter of 2016, 231.3 million men and women were employed in the EU28, of which 152.6 million were in the euro area. These are the highest levels since the third quarter of 2008 in the EU28, and the fourth quarter of 2008 in the euro area. These figures are seasonally adjusted.

Among member states for which data is available, the Czech Republic (+1.5%), Lithuania (+1.3%) and Hungary (+1.0%) recorded the highest increases in the first quarter of 2016 compared with the previous quarter. Poland (0.5%), Greece, Latvia and the Netherlands (all -0.1%) recorded decreases. Meanwhile, the statistical service Cystat reported that the number of job vacancies for the first quarter decreased by 187 (-5.8%) compared to the same quarter last year when it stood at 3,240.