(Reuters] – As the European Union began to recover from the pandemic it reported that the employment rate rose above the 2019 level last year.

In a statement, Eurostat stated that the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat reported that the proportion of Europeans who are employed rose to 73.1% from 71.7% and 72.7% respectively in 2020.

Eurostat stated that “as huge vaccination campaigns were started around the globe in 2021, it was evident that the COVID-19 pandemic situation began to improve slowly in the first quarter 2021.”

The statistics of the bloc state that new coronavirus versions circulated in Europe, which led to temporary lockdowns.

The 2021 employment rate in 16 of the 27 EU member countries, which includes Greece, Romania and Malta, was at or above pre-pandemic levels.

Highest rates of people between 20 and 64 years old were found in Sweden (80.7%), the Czech Republic (80.0%) and the Netherlands (81.7%).

Eurostat reported that the highest employment rates for 2021 were in Croatia (68%), Spain (66.7%), Romania (66.7%), Italy (62.7%), and Greece (62.6%).