Data released on 30 July by Eurostat show that last month, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in the euro area was 7.7 percent, compared to 8 percent in June 2020 and also in May this year.

For the EU as a whole, this rate stood at 7.1 percent in June 2021, compared to 7.3 percent in both the same period last year and in May this year.

In absolute terms, Eurostat estimates that 14.9 million men and women in the EU, of which 12.5 million in the eurozone, were unemployed in June 2021.

This means a reduction of 397,000 unemployed in the EU and 339,000 in the eurozone compared to June 2020.

Portugal followed the European trend, recording an unemployment rate of 6.9 percent in June 2021, after 7.5 percent in the same month of the previous year.

With regard to youth unemployment (covering young people up to 25 years old), it reached 17.3 percent in the eurozone and 17 percent in the EU last month, a reduction compared to June 2020, when these rates were 18.7 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively.

In total, 2.9 million young people (under 25) were unemployed in the EU last month, of which 2.4 million were in the eurozone, down 152,000 and 110,000 respectively from the same period in 2020.

By gender, the unemployment rate for women was 8.2 percent in the euro area and 7.5 percent in the EU in June 2021, while for men it was 7.3 percent and 6.7 percent respectively.