Eurozone unemployment falls for first time since early 2011
Eurozone unemployment is a little softer than expected in July, with the headline rate at 12 per cent, below expectations of a rise to 12.1 per cent.
The total has fallen to 19.178m, the lowest since April. That's also the first fall since early 2011 according to AFP, but it's not enough to see the rate change.
Remember that these numbers are seasonally adjusted by the EU statisticians.
Ben May of Capital Economics says that the health of the employment outlook may "continue to improve over the coming months" but that unemployments "looks set to fall only very gradually at best".