Unemployment in October in the European Union remained unchanged from September, whereas in Croatia it decreased slightly drawing closer to the EU average, according to a report released by Eurostaton Wednesday.

The seasonally-adjusted EU unemployment rate was 7.6% in October 2020, almost identical to September when it was 7.5%, while in October 2019 it was one percentage point higher.

Unemployment in the euroarea was 8.4% and was 0.1 percentage point lower than in September and one percentage point higher than in October 2019.

Eurostat estimates “that 16.236 million men and women in the EU, of whom 13.825 million in the euro area, were unemployed in October 2020.”

“Compared with September 2020, the number of persons unemployed decreased by 91 000 in the EU and by 86 000 in the euro area. Compared with October 2019, unemployment rose by 2.186
million in the EU and by 1.692 million in the euro area.”

Croatia closer to EU average

The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in Croatia was 8% in October 2020, down 0.2 pp compared to September. In October 2019, unemployment in Croatia was 6.4%.

In October, there were 144,000 jobless persons in Croatia, which is 5,000 fewer than in September, but 30,000 more than in October last year.

The highest unemployment rate in October was again registered in Spain (16.2%), followed by Cyprus (10.5%) and Lithuania (10.4%).

The lowest was registered in the Czech Republic (2.9%) and Poland (3.5%).