Short-term trends. Unemployment. Unemployment in the Community. 1990.3

Abstract

After compensating for differences in national recording methods, the sea-sonally adjusted unemployment rate in the European Community, ac-cording to the International Labour Office (ILO) definition,; is ... estimated to have been 8.6% in February 1990, the same level as the previous month. Over the last three years the unemployment rate in the Community as a whole has fallen by a constant 0.7% per year, from 10.6% in February 1987 to 9.9% in 1988,9.2% in 1989 and finally to 8.6% in February 1990. Unemployment has thus fallen by about 20% during the last 36 months. A downward trend in unemployment has been recorded· in all Member States with the exception of Italy and Denmark, starting in 1985 in F. R. Germany, Spain, Ireland and Luxembourg, in 1986 in the United Kingdom and Portugal, and in 1987 in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.