Good news has once again come out of Brussels on the front of efforts to reduce unemployment in the Eu. According to data published by Eurostat last week and referring to January 2007, the unemployment rate in the Eurozone has dropped to 7.4%, a fall of a tenth of a percentage point over the previous month and nine tenths over the same period in 2006. Unemployment in the Eu-27 is also improving: there unemployment is calculated at 7.5% for January 2007 (compared with 7.6% in December and 8.3% twelve months previously), equivalent to 17.5 million citizens without work. The lowest unemployment rates were registered in Denmark (3.2%), Holland (3.6%), Ireland (4.2%), Estonia (4.4%) and Austria (4.5%); the highest in Poland (12.6%), Slovakia (11%), Greece (8.7%), Spain (8.6%) and Bulgaria (8.5%). During the period January 2006 – January 2007, only three member states registered an increase in unemployment: Hungary (from 7.3% to 7.9%), the UK (from 5.1% to 5.5%) and Romania (from 7.1% to 7.5%). Significant reductions throughout the territory of the Eu were also registered by youth and female unemployment, with percentages respectively of 16.8% and 8.5%. Thanks to these figures, Europe has further reduced its employment gap with the Usa (4.6%) and Japan (4.1%).
