In the first quarter this year, the number of persons employed both in the euro area and in the European Union (EU-28) increased by 0.3 percent compared with the previous quarter, according to national accounts estimates published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union.
In the first quarter, employment increased by 1.4 percent in both zones compared with the same quarter of the previous year. In the fourth quarter of 2015, the seasonally adjusted employment rate had moved up by 1.2 percent in the euro area and by 1.3 percent in the EU-28, both year on year.
In the first quarter of the current year, the largest quarter-on-quarter increases were recorded in the Czech Republic (+1.5%), Lithuania (+1.3%) and Hungary (+1.0%), while the largest quarter-on-quarter decreases were seen in Poland (-0.5%), Greece, Latvia and the Netherlands (all -0.1%).