In February 2022, seasonally-adjusted unemployment rates in the EU and euro zone decreased mildly, as did the unemployment rate in Croatia, remaining below the euro area average, showed a report from Eurostat released on Thursday.

The EU unemployment rate, measured by the methodology of the International Labour Organisation, was 6.2% in February 2022, down from 6.3% in January 2022, while in the euro zone it was 6.8%, down from 6.9% in January 2022.

Compared to February 2021, the unemployment rate in the EU dropped by 1.3 percentage points, and in the euro zone by 1.4 percentage points.

In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic started, the unemployment rate in the EU was 6.5%, and in the euro zone 7.2%.

Eurostat estimates that 13.267 million men and women in the EU, of whom 11.155 million in the euro zone, were unemployed in February 2022.

Compared with January 2022, the number of persons unemployed decreased by 221,000 in the EU and by 181,000 in the euro zone. Compared with February 2021, unemployment decreased by 2.568 million in the EU and by 2.150 million in the euro zone.

Croatia still in Slovakia’s company

Spain and Greece were the only two EU countries with two-digit unemployment rates in February 2022, of 12.6 and 11.9% respectively, showed the Eurostat report.

In Croatia the unemployment rate was down by 0.1 percentage point from January to 6.6%, while in February 2021 it stood at 8.5%.

In March 2020 it was at 6.5% and in February of the pre-pandemic year 2019 it was 5.9%.

In February this year, 119,000 Croatians were out of work, 1,000 fewer than in January 2022 and 36,000 fewer compared to February 2021.

Closest to Croatia in terms of the unemployment rates was again Slovakia, with an unemployment rate of 6.5%, as well as Cyprus, with an unemployment rate of 6.4%.

The Czech Republic had the lowest unemployment rate, 2.4%. Poland had an unemployment rate of 3%, while Germany and Malta reported an unemployment rate of 3.1%. The Netherlands and Hungary had unemployment rates of 3.4 and 3.7% respectively.

Further decline in youth unemployment

In the age group under 25 unemployment in the EU and euro zone dropped by 0.3 pp from January to 14%.

By comparison, in February 2021 youth unemployment in the EU was 18.2% and in the euro zone it was 18.6%.

A total of 2.58 million young people in the EU were out of work in February, including 2.10 million in the euro zone.

Compared to January 2022, the number of young unemployed persons dropped by 38,000 in the EU and by 26,000 in the euro zone.

Compared to February 2021 their number dropped by 602,000 in the EU and by 512,000 in the euro zone.

The highest youth unemployment rates were reported by Greece and Spain, of 31.1 and 29.8% respectively.

Germany continued to have the lowest youth unemployment rate, 5.7%, followed by the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, with 7.3 and 7.8%.

Croatia, Belgium, Cyprus, Romania and Slovenia are not obliged to submit monthly data on youth unemployment.

In Q4 2021 Croatia had a youth unemployment rate of 18.3%, with 25,000 young people out of work, up by 1.8 percentage points.