One of the major problems for most European economies in recent times has been unemployment. The problem was further escalated by the recession that hit most of the global economies badly.
Recent survey reports on the unemployment situation in Eurozone however indicate that it has become stable during the last couple of months. In late July this year revealed that the unemployment rate is around 12.1% which is the same as it was during the previous month.
Of course the improvement that has been registered is not much but even the slight improvement is a welcome sight in view of the consistent downslide that was experienced in the unemployment situation in the economy.
“The number of people without work in the 17-nation eurozone fell 15,000 to 19.23 million, after a drop of 35,000 in June” according to the Eurostat statistics agency report published recently.
If you have a look at the unemployment situation in the member countries of European Union; there are 28 of them; you will find that the overall unemployment rate has remained comparatively unchanged at 11%. According to estimation the number of jobless people hover around 26.65 million in these countries. Good news still is that the figure shows a decline by 33000 in comparison to the comparative June figures.
Despite such downward trends the figures are still unacceptable for the top European Union Employment officials like Laszlo Andor. The unacceptability stems from the fact that he considers that there are still millions of jobless people and the unemployment situation will only truly improve with their numbers reduced considerably.
In his own words; “The recent improvements are minimal and the situation is still very fragile. This is no time for celebration or complacency, on the contrary, now that we can see we are on the right employment policy track, we must step up our ‘jobs effort’:”
The challenge is quite big as there have already been substantial damages affected by the economic slump and recession in the months preceding the recent report. Moreover the recent reduction in the number of jobless in Eurozone turns insignificant in view of the fact that during the last one year from July 2012 to July 2013 there has been an increase of around one million jobless in the 28 member countries that are members of European Union.
Yet a glimmer of hope is raised by the fact that after an 18-month long recession the European Union has registered a 0.3% recovery during the second quarter of the current year. It also indicates that there has been growth in the number of jobs as well instead of the steady downfall in number of jobs during the last 18 months.
In addition; during the current month there has been an increment of 1.3% in the inflation rates in the European countries which has helped improve the overall employment situation in them.
