According to Eurostat data, the unemployment rate in the European Union rose to 6.7 percent in May, from 6.6 percent in April. However, it remained the lowest in the Czech Republic, despite rising by 0.2 percentage points to 2.4 percent, according to Czech news portal Ceskenoviny.cz.
In the eurozone alone, the unemployment rate rose to 7.4 percent in May from 7.3 percent in April. However, its growth was slower than analysts had expected. According to a Reuters survey, experts predicted an increase to 7.7 percent.
According to AP, the growth of unemployment in Europe is being hampered by labor market support programs as governments try to mitigate the effects of the coronavirus crisis.
Eurostat estimates that 14.366 million people across the European Union were unemployed in May. Compared to April, the number of people increased by about 253,000.
In the eurozone, the number of unemployed rose by 159,000 month-on-month to 12.146 million.
The number of unemployed under the age of 25 has also increased. Unemployment in this category has long been more than double the overall unemployment rate. In May, it reached 15.7 percent in the EU and 16 percent in the eurozone. In both cases, it increased by 0.3 percentage points month-on-month.
The European economy has been facing the effects of the coronavirus crisis for several months. Last week, the International Monetary Fund predicted that the eurozone economy would fall by 10.2 percent this year, but expects a 6 percent increase next year.
Title image: In this photo taken Sept. 29, 2011, employees work on an assembly line at the Hyundai car plant in Nosovice, northeast Czech Republic. South Korea’s Hyundai introduced last month a third shift at its plant near the north eastern Czech town of Nosovice to be able to produce SUVs and sedans for European markets, 24 hours a day. Despite the painful financial turmoil that has engulfed the eurozone and cast uncertainty over world economic growth, there is still plenty of demand for new cars from low-cost plants like the one at Nosovice. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
