FRR 2016 ANNUAL REPORT06

Unemployment rate in the United States and eurozone since January 1999

19 99

20 00

20 01

20 02

20 03

20 04

20 05

20 06

20 07

20 08

20 09

20 10

20 11

20 12

20 13

20 14

20 15

20 16

United-States Eurozone

6%

7%

8%

9%

10%

11%

12%

13%

3%

4%

5%

6%

7%

8%

9%

10%

Source: Bloomberg.

constantly improving labour market. Indeed, the US unemployment rate had dropped to 4.7% of the working population at the end of December 2016, down 0.3 of a point over the year. The US labour market is now close to its pre-crisis level: an unemployment rate low of 4.4% at the beginning of 2007.

For 2016 as a whole, US growth is estimated to have been +1.6%, compared with +2.6% in 2015.

The eurozone managed to sustain growth of between 1.5% and 2% (+1.7% in 2016) through consumer spending and an upturn, albeit still modest, in corporate investment. It also cre- ated more jobs as the unemployment rate dropped from 10.5% to 9.6% of the working population. Since its peak of 12.1% in mid 2013, the unemployment rate has clearly been on a downward trend, even if the eurozone labour market is still a long way from its pre-crisis level. It had bottomed out at 7.2% in early 2008. The eurozone therefore seems to be in the mid- dle of its business cycle, lagging behind the United States where the labour market is prob- ably close to full employment.