Euro area unemployment dips further in August

Joblessness in the single currency bloc declined last month, led by a sharp drop in Italy.

According to Eurostat, and as expected by economists, the seasonally-adjusted rate of unemployment in the Eurozone fell from 8.2% for July to 8.1% in August.

In Germany and Spain, unemployment was unchanged from the prior month's level, at 3.4% and 15.2%, respectively.

Meanwhile, in France and the Netherlands it increased by one tenth of a percentage point to 9.3% and 3.9%.

However, in Italy, it fell from 10.2% to 9.7%.

In absolute terms, unemployment fell by 102,000 from the prior month and by 1.921m from a year ago to reach 13.220m for August.

Versus one year ago, the largest reductions in unemployment in the euro area were seen in Greece and Portugal, where the proportion of people who were out of a job fell from 21.3% and 8.8% to 19.1% and 6.8%, respectively.