EU Unemployment Close To Pre-Recession Levels

The U.S. has experienced 93 straight weeks of job creation and President Trump is always keen to draw attention to the current strength of the American economy and sinking unemployment. With so much focus on the U.S. situation, how are unemployment rates looking on the other side of the Atlantic? Pew Research recently highlighted Eurostat data which shows that the EU is also experiencing positive trends in reducing unemployment.

In the first quarter of 2008, unemployment across the EU stood at 6.8 percent, right before the financial crisis struck. As the EU slid into recession, unemployment rose dramatically, peaking at 11 percent in the first half of 2013 before eventually recovering to 7.1 percent. Like Americans, the economic mood among Europeans is generally upbeat. Pew found that 95 percent of Germans said their economic situation was very or somewhat good in late 2017. The EU still has a lot of work on its hands, however. Unemployment remains high in the south where public opinion about the state of the economy is different to perceptions in Germany. In Spain for example, only 28 percent of those polled find their economic situation very or somewhat good.