Eurozone jobless rate drops to lowest since August 2011

This is slightly better than the consensus of analysts surveyed by the financial services provider Factset, who had forecast 10.4%, the same rate as in December. The European Commission said last week that its Economic Sentiment Indicator, which aggregates measures of consumer and business confidence, fell to 103.8 in February from 105.1 in January – the lowest reading since June 2015. He added: “It is too high to generate higher wages”.

Even though unemployment has been coming down quite rapidly, it is unlikely that this will result in stronger wage growth in the near term, Bert Colijn at ING Bank, noted.

Large disparities persist among the 19 countries in the single currency area.

Among the major eurozone countries, there were drops in the number of jobless in Spain, Germany and the Netherlands but the number of unemployed was flat in both France and Italy. A similar performance is expected this year. The trend continued in January, when the jobless rate fell to a near four and a half-year low. Given the length of procedures, however, this could not occur before next year. The government of President François Hollande is now the penalty for passing a major reform of the labor code, strongly opposed by unions, and part of the left.

Youth unemployment remained much higher than the overall figure, at 22 per cent.

Joblessness in the eurozone has gradually crept lower since the alarming highs of the debt crisis, but the European job market still remains a problem and way off the levels needed to boost the economy.

Germany’s unemployment rate dipped to 6.6 per cent last month thanks to sustained growth in Europe’s biggest economy and relatively mild winter weather.

Among the factors that have helped are stimulus from the European Central Bank, which has cut interest rates and injected money into the economy, less stringent budgetary policies, a lower euro and slumping oil prices.

Meanwhile, the youth unemployment rate, which applies to the 15-24 group, climbed to 39.3 percent from 38.7 percent.