Eurozone disappoints with unemployment rate at the beginning of the year

In January, the eurozone recorded the lowest unemployment rate since 1998. The sad exceptions are Greece and Spain with double digits. Historic lows in eurozone unemployment As Eurostat announced on Tuesday, the eurozone's unemployment rate averages 7% and is the lowest since records began in 1998.

But in the "EU27" unemployment records a historical minimum, as it does not exceed 6.4%. The previous "negative records" date back to March 2020, that is, just before the start of the pandemic, with 6.5% for the eurozone and 7.25% for the EU as a whole. So today's record is further evidence that the European economy is starting to return to pre-pandemic levels.

The lowest unemployment rate in the eurozone is in the Czech Republic, at just 2.1%. Spain maintains a sad lead in unemployment with 13%, which, however, is well below the 20-25% unemployment rate recorded by the Iberian country in the recent past. In second place is Greece with 12.7%, followed by Italy with 9%. New industrial orders have been so plentiful that major firms have "accelerated job creation at an unprecedented pace in the last 24 years" to keep up with demand, according to think tank IHS Markit. Shortage of qualified leaders According to the Handelsblatt, a German economic survey, many European countries are currently experiencing a shortage of highly qualified executives. Engineers, software developers, and IT leaders are some of the most in-demand jobs. In addition, artisans, nurses and catering and tourism workers are urgently needed in some countries. According to Handelsblatt, Sweden alone is estimated to need an additional 70,000 CIOs in the coming years.

There is an acute shortage of doctors in Denmark. Italy lacks 400,000 highly skilled workers in the electrical and mechanical equipment sector, as well as in the construction sector, as well as in the tourism sector. The Czech Republic has entered into bilateral agreements with other Eastern European countries, as well as with India and the Philippines, to attract labor. The situation in Germany In Germany, unemployment usually increases significantly in January due to seasonal factors, such as a decrease in activity in agricultural production, tourism or the construction industry. In addition, experience shows that in January, many firms lay off more employees or postpone important investments and economic activities to a later date in the face of uncertainty. In a sense, the same thing happened this year, but the increase in the number of unemployed is much less than in other years.

In particular: according to the German Federal Employment Office (BA), in January the number of unemployed reached 2.462.000. This figure is 133,000 more than in December 2021, but 439,000 less than in January 2021. "It was a good start for the labor market in the New Year," said Daniel Terchenbach, head of the federal labor bureau. "The number of unemployed may have increased, but the increase was much less than what is usually recorded." On the other hand, there was a notable increase in the number of part-time or work-suspended workers in January. These are mostly catering or retail workers who cannot be fully employed due to the pandemic. Today, the unemployment rate in Germany reaches 5.1%.

Johannes Röll

Johannes Röll was born 1978 in Brilon,Germany. Graduated RWTH Aachen University. Over the past ten years he worked as Head of the plastic card team, where he was mainly responsible for the development of the distribution, Head of sales Department and Financial Analyst,where he got experience in planning and support sales figures for branches. For the present he works as freelancer

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