Voters in Italy may not see it that way, but euro-area unemployment is falling, and fast.
As UBS Wealth Management economists Ricardo Garcia and Christoph Buxtorf point out in a note, joblessness in the 19-nation currency bloc has declined more rapidly than many, including the European Central Bank, anticipated. In fact, at 9.8 percent, unemployment in October hit the lowest level in more than seven years, and came in below the 9.9 percent the ECB foresaw on average for 2017 in its September projections.
