Figures released by Eurostat on Thursday reveal that the unemployment rate in the European Union fell to its lowest level ever in December 2019 and to an 11-year low in the euro area. The Czech Republic boasts the lowest unemployment rate in the whole of the European Union, while jobless figures in Poland and Hungary are less than half the EU average, the V4 news agency reported.

The unemployment rate fell last month to an average of 6.2% across the 28 EU member states, down from 6.3 % in November. A year ago, in December 2018, unemployment was at 6.6%. The 6.2% unemployment rate is the lowest recorded in the EU since January 2000, when figures began to be recorded as part of the EU monthly unemployment series, Eurostat reported on Thursday.

In December 2019, the unemployment rate fell to 7.4% in the 19 member states of the euro zone, the lowest level since May 2008. In December, the number of the unemployed in the EU amounted to 15.475 million in the European Union, of which 12.251 million unemployed were registered in the euro zone. Compared to the previous month, the number of jobless fell by 80,000 in the EU and 34,000 in the Eurozone.

In the whole of the EU, the lowest unemployment rate was registered in the Czech Republic in December 2019 (2%), followed by Germany with 3.2% and the Netherlands at 3.3%. The unemployment rate was 3.3% in Poland and 3.4% in Malta and Hungary (according to November data). The highest proportion of registered unemployed could be found in Greece and Spain, where the latest unemployment rate was 16.6% and 13.7% respectively, exceeding the EU average by a wide margin.

The German Federal Employment Agency published its data for January on Thursday. In Germany, the number of unemployed grew by 198,000 compared to December, totaling 2.426 million, and the unemployment rate rose to 5.3%. According to the agency, the underlying explanation for the increase is that seasonal work in the construction industry and agriculture sector is unavailable in the winter.