The labour market in the European Union continued to recover in the second quarter.The employment rate has reached almost 75 per cent and the share of the available labour force in the working age population has declined. The EU labour market is in better shape than before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Eurostat data.
Employment is rising
The employment rate in the European Union rose to 74.8 percent in the second quarter of this year. Compared with the previous three months, it had increased by 0.3 percentage point, an increase of around one percentage point compared with a year earlier.
The number of people who are unemployed, not looking for work or working part-time has also fallen. Their share fell to 11.5 percent. A year ago, it was above the 13% threshold. The EU labour market is in its best shape since the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, and both the employment rate and the proportion of people out of work are lower than before the coronavirus pandemic.
Lithuania is doing best
The largest increase in the employment rate was recorded in Lithuania, where it rose by 1.6 percentage points. In Croatia, on the other hand, employment fell by half a percentage point, the worst result in the EU, according to the latest Eurostat data.
