EU's unemployment down to 6.9% in July

ISTANBUL

The EU's unemployment rate stood at 6.9% in July, down 0.7 percentage points year-on-year, the bloc's statistical office reported on Wednesday.

The eurozone unemployment rate also dropped 0.8 percentage points to 7.6% in July on a yearly basis, Eurostat said in a press release.

The eurozone/euro area or EA19 represents member states that use the single currency – euro – while the EU27 includes all member countries of the bloc.

Eurostat said nearly 14.6 million men and women in the EU27, including 12.33 million in the euro area, were unemployed as of July.

The number of unemployed people was down by 1.5 million on a yearly basis in July across the 27-member bloc.

The highest unemployment rates were posted by Greece (14.6%), Spain (14.3%) and Italy (9.3%), and the lowest by the Czech Republic (2.8%), the Netherlands (3.1%) and Hungary (3.3%).

Meanwhile, there were 2.85 million unemployed under age 25 in the EU27 in July, making for a youth unemployment rate of 16.2%.