BRUSSELS: The eurozone’s unemployment rate fell to a historic low in December, official figures showed Tuesday, as hiring in Europe rode a solid recovery and shrugged off the explosive spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant.

The seasonally adjusted jobless rate stood at seven percent in December, the lowest level since the official Eurostat statistics agency began compiling data in April 1998. In the 27-member European Union, which includes countries such as Poland not in the single currency bloc, unemployment fell to 6.4 percent in December, also a low since records began.

“The eurozone ended 2021 — the year after the worst recession since World War II — with its lowest ever unemployment rate. A testimony to the success of our collective response to this crisis,” said Paolo Gentiloni, the EU economics affairs commissioner.