· EU unemployment was steady in October as EMU unemployment notched down one tenth of one percentage point. The chart
shows that the long steady drop in the rate of EU unemployment has hit a slowing phase. The current rates available for the largest EMU countries show that the tendency of the unemployment rate to drop may be slowing. While Germany, France and Spain all post rates at 8.1%, Spain’s rate has barely fallen in the last
12 months. Still, each of these countries has seen some unemployment reduction in the past several months. It is too soon to say that the drop in unemployment in Europe has stopped. For France the drop over the past year is significant; for Germany it has been a rather sharp drop. Spain shows signs of stalling.
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