Inflation is 3.3% in April in the euro-zone (one month earlier, it was 3.6%) and unemployment was 7.1% in March, just like in February. These are the statistics published today by Eurostat, showing an even lower unemployment rate all over the European Union at 6.7%. According to the Statistics Office of the EU Commission, nearly 16 million "men and women were unemployed in March, 10 million and 900 thousand of whom living in the 15 countries of the euro-zone". Compared with March 2007, "the number of unemployed people has decreased by 1.4 million units all over Europe and by 600 thousand units in the single-currency zone". In the EU member states, the lowest unemployment rate is in the Netherlands again (2.6%), in Denmark (3.1) and in Cyprus (3.7). Many other countries are well below the EU’s average, including Austria, Sweden and the Czech Republic. Italy’s rate is 6.1%, Germany’s already above the continental average is 7.3 and France’s is 7.8. Instead, the highest rates are in Spain (9.3) and Slovakia (9.8). Poland and Bulgaria have seen substantial improvements in their job markets. The youth unemployment rate is instead still high: among the under 25s, it is 14.5%, with peaks of 21.8% in Italy and Greece.
