Eurozone Unemployment Fails to Weigh on the EUR after the Holidays

It was a quiet start to the day on the economic calendar today. Following the holidays, the Eurozone’s unemployment rate was in focus this morning.

Ahead of the European open, however, the European futures pointed to a strong opening in response to U.S stats from Friday and Monday.

We didn’t expect the unemployment numbers to have too much influence on the EUR or the European boerses.

Not only were there impressive stats from the U.S to consider but also the likely effect of the latest EU lockdown measures on unemployment.

Eurozone Unemployment

In the month of February, the Eurozone’s unemployment rate held steady at 8.3%. January’s unemployment rate was revised up from 8.1% to 8.3%. Economists had forecast an unemployment rate of 8.1%.

According to Eurostat,

• While unchanged from January 2021, the unemployment rate was up from a February 2020 7.3%.
• Eurostat estimated that 13.571m people were unemployed in the euro area in February, rising by 48,000 from January.
• Compared with February 2020, unemployment rose by 1.507m in the euro area.

Market Impact

Ahead of the unemployment figures, the EUR had recovered from early losses, having struck a pre-release and current day high $1.18218.

In response to today’s data released, the EUR fell to a post-stat low $1.18116 before finding support.

At the time of writing, the EUR was up by 0.04% to $1.18181.

It was a more impressive start to the week for the European boerses, however, which hit record highs this morning.

Ahead of the data release the DAX30 was up by 1.14%, with the EuroStoxx600 up 0.91%. The CAC40 trailed with a more modest 0.84% gain.

Up Next

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