Investing.com - The euro zone’s unemployment rate fell to the lowest level in more than four years in November, fueling optimism over the health of the region's economy, official data showed on Thursday.
In a report, Eurostat said that the euro zone’s unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 10.5% from 10.6% in October. This is the lowest rate recorded in the euro area since October 2011. Analysts had expected the jobless rate to inch up to 10.7% in November.
The EU28 unemployment rate dipped from 9.2% in October to 9.1% in November, the lowest since July 2009.
Among the member states, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Germany (4.5%) and the highest in Greece (24.6% in September 2015) and Spain (21.4%).
EUR/USD was trading at 1.0845 from around 1.0843 ahead of the release of the data, while EUR/GBP was at 0.7441 from 0.7439 earlier.
Meanwhile, European stock markets were down sharply. Germany's DAX fell 3.2%, the EURO STOXX 50 dropped 2.85%, France’s CAC 40 slumped 2.7%, while London’s FTSE 100 declined 2.6%.