Unemployment in the eurozone was practically stable, going from 10.8% in September to 10.7% in October this year.
This is the lowest rate recorded in the euro area since January 2012.
Overall, there are a depressing number of people who have no work – Eurostat estimates there are 17,240,000 in the euro area and 22,497,000 throughout the entire EU.
In Portugal over the course of one year the rate reported was 12.4%, down from 13.5% last October. This brought the number of unemployed down to 633,000.
Portugal’s young people also had very little respite with the rate falling just one per cent to nearly 32%, leaving 117,000 people under the age of 25 with no employment.
Portugal has the fifth highest unemployment problem in the 28-member union.
Greece suffers the highest rate - 24.5%. Spain has seen employment rise, but its jobless rate of 21.6% still puts the country in the second highest rank.
The lack of employment for their young people remains shocking – virtually 48% in each country. Italy is another euro region nation where young people find very little on offer. There practically 40% of the under-25s have not found employment.
Germany, the Czech Republic, Malta and the UK have the lowest rates, at 4.5%, 4.7%, 5.1% and 5.2% respectively.
