Eurozone unemployment rate falls to 6.6% in May

The European Union statistics office Eurostat said that the unemployment rate in the 19 member states of the euro area fell to 6.6% of the labor force in May from a revised 6.7% in April. Analysts had expected the unemployment rate to reach 6.8% in May, and the 6.6% rate was the lowest since records dating back to 1998, before the official launch of the euro in January 1999.

The data showed that the number of unemployed people in the euro area fell to 11.004 million in May, compared to 11.085 million in the previous month, as the economy continued to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.