News Before the tidal wave: Malta in 6th place in unemployment stakes
It is to be expected that the Coronavirus will bring about a tidal wave of unemployment. But before that happens Malta ia in the sixth lowest place in the unemployment stakes in the EU as this graph from Eurostat shows.
The euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 7.3% in February – the month before COVID-19 containment measures began to be widely introduced by Member States –, down from 7.4% in January and from 7.8% in February 2019. This is the lowest rate recorded in the euro area since March 2008.
The EU unemployment rate was 6.5% in February, stable compared with January and down from 6.9% in February 2019. This remains the lowest rate recorded in the EUsince the start of the monthly unemployment series in February 2000.
Eurostat estimates that 13.984 million men and women in the EU, of whom 12.047 million in the euro area, were unemployed in February. Compared with January, the number of persons unemployed decreased by 62 000 in the EU and by 88 000 in the euro area. Compared with February 2019, unemployment fell by 784 000 in the and by 663 000 in the euro area.
Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates in February 2020 were recorded in Czechia (2.0%), the and Poland (both 2.9%). The high
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est unemployment rates were observed in Greece (16.3% in December 2019) and Spain (13.6%).
Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in 19 Member States, remained stable in Germany and Portugal, while it increased in Czechia (from 1.9% to 2.0%), Romania (from 3.8% to 3.9%), Luxembourg (from 5.4% to 5.7%), Estonia (from 4.2% to 4.7% between January 2019 and January 2020), Lithuania (from 6.0% to 6.6%) and Sweden (from 6.6% to 7.2%). The largest decreases were registered in Greece (from 18.5% to 16.3% between December 2018 and December 2019), Cyprus (from 7.5% to 5.8%) and Croatia (from 7.2% to 6.2%).
In February, the unemployment rate in the United States was 3.5%, down from 3.6% in January and from 3.8% in February 2019.