Euro zone employment maintains steady rise to new record in second quarter

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone employment rose at the same rate in the second quarter as the first to a new record high, data released on Tuesday showed.

Employment in the 19 countries sharing the euro zone increased by 0.4 percent quarter-on-quarter and by 1.5 percent year-on-year, EU statistics office Eurostat said. These were the same rates of change as in the first three months of 2018.

It meant 158 million people in the euro zone had a job in the April-June period, a record high. Employment has been steadily rising in the past five years, with about 9 million extra people in work.

Estonia, Cyprus and Luxembourg recorded the highest quarterly rises, while decreases were seen in Latvia and Portugal.

Employment growth in France was 0.1 percent in the quarter, in Germany 0.2 percent and in Italy 0.5 percent.

For further details of Eurostat data click on:

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/news/news-releases

(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop)