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Record 156 Million Employed in Euroland

Malta, Spain, Greece and Poland recorded highest increases.
Malta, Spain, Greece and Poland recorded highest increases.

Euroland employment grew at a marginally lower rate of 0.4% in the second quarter, following a 0.5% rise in the first quarter. Year-on-year employment growth stabilized at 1.6%.

In the second quarter, there were 155.6 million employed in the eurozone, the highest level on record. Employment in the EU28 countries rose by 0.4% on quarter and rose by 1.5% annually. Malta, Spain, Greece and Poland registered the highest rises in employment compared with the prior period, while declines in employment were reported in Croatia, Latvia, Romania and Estonia, Malta’s Bank of Valletta published the report on its website.

The August producer manufacturing index results showed that employment growth eased but remained the best recorded in the past decade, suggesting eurozone unemployment will continue to decline.

The Bank of England retained its interest rates at record low of 0.25% and the quantitative easing program at a maximum of $591 billion. The bank signaled an interest rate hike in the coming months to bring inflation back to target if the economy and price pressures kept growing.

The monetary policy committee said: “All MPC members continued to judge that, if the economy were to follow a path broadly consistent with the August Inflation Report central projection, then monetary policy could need to be tightened by a somewhat greater extent over the forecast period than current market expectations.”

Data released this week showed that the UK unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in 42 years. Despite weak economic activity, employment growth remains strong, while earnings growth remained slow. The Office for National Statistics said that the jobless rate fell to 4.3%, the lowest rate since 1975.

Analysts had anticipated the rate to remain unchanged at 4.4%. Unemployment fell by 75,000 from the three months to April, to a 12-year low of 1.46 million between May and July.

Malta (+1.0%), Spain (+0.9%), Greece and Poland (both +0.8%) recorded the highest increases compared with the previous quarter. Malta saw a 4.7% increase when compared with a year ago.

In contrast, decreases in employment were observed in Croatia (-0.8%), Latvia (-0.7%), Romania (-0.6%) and Estonia (-0.5%).

 

 

 

 

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