Unemployment in the European Union in November 2019 remained at its lowest level since the EU statistical office Eurostat began publishing monthly data, and Croatia was close to the EU average.

The EU28 seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.3% in November 2019, stable compared with October 2019 and down from 6.6% in November 2018, Eurostat said on Thursday.

The euro area rate was 7.5% in November 2019, stable compared with October 2019 and down from 7.9% in November 2018. This remains the lowest rate recorded in the euro area since July 2008.

Eurostat estimates that 15.582 million men and women in the EU28, of whom 12.315 million in the euro area, were unemployed in November 2019. Compared with October 2019, the number of persons unemployed increased by 34,000 in the EU28 and decreased by 10,000 in the euro area. Compared with November 2018, unemployment fell by 768,000 in the EU28 and by 624,000 in the euro area.

The lowest unemployment rates in November 2019 were recorded in Czechia (2.2%), Germany (3.1%) and Poland (3.2%), while the highest rates were observed in Greece (16.8% in September 2019) and Spain (14.1%).

In Croatia, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 6.5% in November 2019, stable compared with the revised rate for October. This is the lowest rate since Eurostat began tracking data for Croatia.

In November 2018, unemployment in Croatia stood at 7.5%, which put it among the EU countries that recorded the largest decreases on an annual level, along with Greece (from 18.8% to 16.8% between September 2018 and September 2019), Bulgaria (from 4.8% to 3.7%) and Estonia (from 5.3% to 4.2% between October 2018 and October 2019).