Euro Area Employment Change

The number of employed persons in the Euro area rose by 0.1% from the previous quarter to 171.25 million in the final three months of 2024, slowing from the 0.2% increase in the previous period and loosely in line with the flash estimate and initial market expectations. It was the 15th consecutive period of employment expansion, backing the ECB’s rhetoric that the bloc’s labor market remains tight, despite the slowdown at the turn of the year. Among major economies, employment growth was the sharpest in Spain (0.9%) and the Netherlands (0.3%), while employment fell Italy (-0.1%) and stalled for France and Germany. From the previous year, Eurozone employment growth rose to 0.7%, revised higher from the preliminary estimate of 0.6%.