Measured by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) methodology, Croatia had a seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate of 15.1%, down 0.1 percentage points from a revised rate in January. Due to changes in the collection and processing of data, Eurostat revised all data for Croatia back to September 2015. Thus the unemployment rate in December was 15.3%, in November 15.6% and in October 15.9%.
Eurostat data show that 287,000 Croatians were out of work in February, 1,000 people fewer than in January. Compared to February 2015, there were 35,000 fewer jobless persons in February this year.
Croatia continues to be among the three EU countries with the highest unemployment rates according to the ILO methodology. Greece is first with a 24% unemployment rate, and Spain is second, with a 20.4% rate.
The lowest unemployment rates were reported by Germany, 4.3%, and the Czech Republic, 4.5%.
In the EU, the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was 8.9%, staying at the lowest level since May 2009, to which it slid in January. In February 2015 it was 9.7%.
There were 21.651 million unemployed people in the EU28 in February, including 16.634 million in the euro area. This was a decrease of 59,000 and 39,000 respectively from January.
Compared to February 2015, the number of jobless people in the EU28 was down by 1.971 million and in the euro area it was down by 1.303 million.
As for youth unemployment, in the EU it went down to 19.4% from 19.5% in the previous month. The youth unemployment rate in February 2015 was 20.9%.
There were 4.381 million unemployed young people in the EU in February, including 3.011 million in the euro area, annual decreases of 428,000 and 219,000 respectively.
Data for youth unemployment in Croatia in February were not available.
Eurostat revised the youth unemployment rate in Croatia in the last quarter of 2015, from a previously estimated 44.1% to 40.3%, but despite that, Croatia has remained in the group of countries with the highest youth unemployment rates.
Greece had the highest youth unemployment rate in February, 48.9%, followed by Spain with a rate of 45.3%.