Unemployment in the EU, December 2012 and in Germany, January 2013

According to Eurostat,

“The euro area seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 11.7% in December 2012, stable compared with November. The EU27 unemployment rate was 10.7%, also stable compared with November. In both zones, rates have risen markedly compared with December 2011, when they were 10.7% and 10.0% respectively. These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.”

And indeed: the number of unemployed did not increase in december (graph 1). Note however that the incrases in the non-euro (the differences between the yellow and the blue lines) area were much smaller than in the Euro area. In some months there were even decreases, outside the Euro area.

 

Graph 1. Change in the number of unemployed persons (compared to previous month, in thousands), seasonally adjusted, January 2006 – December 2012

Good news? Not so fast. Unemployment in Germany, January 2013, was quite a bit higher than in December and even higher than in January 2012 (not seasonally adjusted, not the Eurostat definition). The year on year increase is only 0,1% – but it comes after an impressive period of increasing employment and decreasing unemployment.

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