BRUSSELS: Employment and activity rates have continued to increase in the European Union (EU), and in the third quarter of 2015, the overall EU employment rate even reached its pre-crisis level, the EU said Thursday.
Meanwhile, unemployment has continued to recede and the share of long-term unemployed persons in total unemployment has slightly gone down, an EU statement said, citing the 2015 winter edition of its employment and social situation quarterly review.
The EU employment rate for people aged between 20 and 64 has increased by 0.9 percentage points in the year to the third quarter of 2015, reaching 70.6 percent, the statement said.
The improvement was noted by most EU member states, with Estonia, Latvia, Hungary and Spain recording the largest increases, it added.
Noting the encouraging development in employment, commissioner for employment, social affairs, skills and labor mobility Marianne Thyssen, said in the statement, “We still have a long way to go to reach the employment target of 75 percent that the EU set itself for 2020. We need to pay particular attention to long-term unemployment.”
The number of employees with a permanent contract grew by about 1.5 million in the year to the third quarter of 2015 in the EU, while temporary contracts grew by about 930,000 and the number of those self-employed declined by 330,000, according to the statement.
