Euro area unemployment steady at 7.8% in February

The rate of euro area unemployment was steady last month and at its lowest level since October 2008.

According to Eurostat, the rate of joblessness was unchanged from the month before in February at 7.8%.

From among the bloc's largest economies, the rate of unemployment in both Germany and France dipped by one tenth of a percentage point to 3.1% and 8.8%, respectively.

In the Netherlands and Spain it fell by two tenths of a percentage point from January, to 13.9% and 3.4%, respectively, while in Portugal it did so by three tenths to 6.3%.

But in Italy it rose from 10.5% to 10.7%.

Of the 12.37m men and women who were unemployed in February, 2.34m were under 25 years old, with the highest rates of youth unemployment being those in Greece (39.5%), Italy (32.8%) and Spain (32.4%).

Twelve months before, the rate of Eurozone unemployment stood at 8.5%.

Commenting on Monday's unemployment figures, Claus Vistesen at Pantheon Macroeconomics said: "We think unemployment in the EZ as a whole will fall further this year, but the rate of improvement almost surely will decline thanks to the slowdown in GDP growth. We reckon unemployment will only dip by about 0.2pp between now and the end of the year, to 7.6%."