Eurozone unemployment rate continues to fall: Eurostat

The labor market in the 19-country eurozone continued to improve in November, as the double-digit reading successfully hit a record low for the past four years, official data showed on Thursday.

The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate stood at 10.5 percent in November in the single currency bloc, down from 10.6 percent in the previous month, said Eurostat, the statistic agency of the European Union (EU).

"This is the lowest rate recorded in the euro area since October 2011," said the agency in a statement.

A total of 130,000 people found jobs in November, data showed. On a yearly basis, the reading was more encouraging as 1.5 million more people had joined the labor market.

The fall of the jobless rate has been constantly recorded in 2015 while the bloc suffered low inflation and sluggish economic growth.

However, Europe's unemployment was still high above levels in early 2008, months before the financial crisis, and looked stagnant compared with the United States, whose jobless rate stood at 5.0 percent in November.

In the wider 28-country EU, the unemployment rate was 9.1 percent in November, down from 9.2 percent in the previous month, Eurostat said.

There remained a huge disparity between member states as the bloc's powerhouse Germany saw the lowest unemployment rates in November at 4.5 percent while the readings of debt-torn Greece and Spain were both above 20 percent.

Youth unemployment remained high. In November, some 4.5 million young persons under age 25 were unemployed in the EU, of whom around 3.2 million were in the euro area.

The youth unemployment rate was 20 percent in the EU and 22.5 percent in the euro area in November. Endit