The euro area unemployment rate slipped to 7.2% in November 2021, the EU statistical office announced.

The figure was down from 7.3% a month ago and from 8.1% in November 2020, Eurostat said in a statement.

Following a decrease for the seventh month in a row, November saw the lowest unemployment figure until that time in 2021, with the highest level recorded in January with 8.2%.

The number of people unemployed dropped by 220,000 from October 2021.

In the EU27, the unemployment rate fell to 6.5%, down from 6.7% in October and 7.4% in the same month previous year.

The eurozone/euro area, or EA19, represents member states that use the single currency – euro – while the EU27 includes all member countries of the bloc.

The number of people unemployed dropped by 247,000 month-on-month in the 27 member bloc, according to Eurostat.

"Compared with November 2020, unemployment decreased by 1.7 million in the EU and by 1.4 million in the euro area," it said.

The youth unemployment rate was 15.4% in the EU and 15.5% in the euro area in November, down from 15.6% and 15.8%, respectively, in the previous month.

Some 2.84 million young people under 25 years old were jobless in the EU, including 2.31 million in the eurozone.

In November, the unemployment rate was 7.5% for women and 6.9% for men in the euro area.