Press Release: Solid employment growth for the second year, but early signs of a cooling off in labour markets

An analysis of recent data released by the European Commission on 19 May, 2008, showed a still solid overall performance in the EU labour market, although the pace of improvement appeared to be slowing. By the fourth quarter of 2007, total employment had increased by 3.3 million from a year earlier to reach 224.5 million, while unemployment had dropped to 16.1 million by the first quarter of 2008. However, quarterly employment growth halved in the last quarter of 2007 after the strong performance at the beginning of the year, and recent forecasts suggested that the unemployment rate may well bottom out in 2008.