Unemployment in the eurozone dropped marginally to 11.1% in April from 11.2% in March and is down from 11.7% in April 2014.
The jobless problem has eased somewhat in Portugal dropping to 13% from the 14.6% recorded in April last year. Nevertheless, although the number has reduced, there are still 668,000 people in the country estimated to be without work.
Overall there are more than 17.5 million people trying to get by without jobs in the euro area.
Greece and Spain retain the tragic lead, although the rates have begun to fall. Greek unemployment was running at 25.4% in February down from 27% a year earlier and in Spain the rate dropped to 22.7% from 25%.
The Spanish improvement represented the largest decrease in the zone.
Youth unemployment remains shockingly high at 22.3% although this is down from 24%.
Portugal’s young people had better luck in 2015 than the year before as the jobless rate fell to 31% from an earlier high of 36.5%. This means that 120,000 young adults remain without paid employment.
Greek and Spanish young people are still struggling with levels in each nation of 50%.
