Unemployment in the EU is already approaching pre-pandemic levels

Unemployment in the European Union (EU) is already approaching pre-pandemic levels. On the other hand, these figures may be distorted by the rise in hidden unemployment. In the current analysis, Ľubomír Koršňák, an analyst at UniCredit Bank, pointed this out. "The labor market has withstood the pandemic downturn in European economies relatively well. The rise in unemployment has been more modest in most countries than during the previous global financial crisis," the economist said. "Numerous measures aimed at mitigating the negative effects of the short-term economic shock on employment have probably contributed to this and have been implemented by the vast majority of European Union countries at present, in contrast to the previous crisis," he added. Thus, the unemployment rate in the European Union rose on average by just over one percentage point, reaching its peak in August and September last year at 7.7 percent. "Concerns were also confirmed that at the time of economic recovery, together with the gradual termination of support schemes, artificially supported jobs could manifest themselves in a delayed rise in unemployment during the pandemic," Koršňák emphasized. On the contrary, he said, the labor market began to react relatively quickly to the first signs of a popandemic recovery, and unemployment in Europe began to decline relatively quickly and return to pre-pandemic levels. In August this year, the unemployment rate in the countries of the European Union reached 6.8 percent, which was only two tenths more than the average just before the outbreak of the pandemic at the turn of 2019 and 2020.