In the second quarter this year, the number of persons employed in the euro area and in the European Union (EU-28) rose by 0.4 percent, both compared with the previous quarter, according to national accounts estimates published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union.
In the second quarter, employment increased by 1.5 percent in the euro area and by 1.4 percent in the EU-28 compared with the same quarter of the previous year. In the first quarter of 2018, the seasonally adjusted employment rate had moved up by 1.5 percent both in the euro area and in the EU-28, year on year.
In the second quarter of the current year, the largest quarter-on-quarter increases were recorded in Estonia and Malta (both +1.3%), Poland (+1.2%), Cyprus (+1.0%) and Luxembourg (+0.9%), while the largest quarter-on-quarter decreases were seen in Latvia, Portugal, Romania (all -0.3%) and Bulgaria (-0.2%).