The eurozone unemployment rate remained unchanged in December compared with November, coming in at 8.3%, but is still higher than last year's rate, according to official figures.
This is a jump of almost 1 percentage point compared to last year. In December 2019, the unemployment rate of the 19-member bloc had stood at 7.4%, the European Union's statistical office Eurostat said on Monday.
The EU as a whole fares better than the eurozone, with its unemployment rate coming in at 7.5% in December 2020 - the same as in the preceding month, but up from 6.5% in December 2019.
16 million out of work
This means that 16 million men and women are officially out of work in the entire bloc, and 13.7 million in the eurozone.
Almost 2 million more people were unemployed in the EU in 2020, compared to the same month in 2019. For the eurozone, this constitutes a jump of 1.5 million people.
