The unemployment rate of people aged 15-74 increased in the majority regions of European Union countries.

In fact unemployment has continued to vary widely across the EU regions, with the lowest unemployment rate recorded in the Polish region of Wielkopolskie of 1.8 per cent. In two Czech regions, namely Central Bohemia unemployment was 1.9 per cent, and two per cent in the South-West region.

This is followed by three further Czech regions of Prague, North-East and South-East regions, all registering unemployment of 2.3 per cent. At the opposite end of the scale, the highest unemployment rates were registered in the Spanish autonomous cities of Ceuta, up 24.5 per cent and Melilla, also up 23.7 per cent.

Spanish cities register biggest jump in EU unemployment

In two other Spanish regions of Canary Islands and Andalusia, unemployment was up 22.6 per cent and 22.3 per cent, respectively. This information comes from regional data on the labour market in 2020 published today (April 28) by the statistical office of the European Union (Eurostat).

According to the data, in 2019, the unemployment rate of people aged 15-74 in the EU was at its record low since 2000. However, the unemployment rate increased by 0.4 percentage points (pp) in 2020 compared with 2019.

The increase in unemployment has arisen, as the EU labour market was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of the EU regions registered an increase in their unemployment rate although to varying extent.

Among EU regions with available data, the highest increase was recorded in the Greek region of Crete (+5.6 pp compared with 2019), followed by the Balearic Islands in Spain (+4.3 pp), the Ionian Islands in Greece (+3.6 pp), South Aegean off the coast of Greece (+3.0 pp) as well as Champagne-Ardenne in France (+2.6 pp).

In contrast, less than one-third (31 per cent) of the EU regions saw their unemployment rate fall in 2020. The highest decreases were registered in the Greek region of West Macedonia (-4.9 pp compared with 2019) and an overseas region of France Réunion (-3.9 pp), followed by the Spanish autonomous city of Melilla (-3.3 pp) and two further overseas regions of France in French Guiana (-3.2 pp) and Guadeloupe (-3.1 pp).