Employment in the eurozone is rising faster than expected according to the latest economic bulletin from the European Central Bank. <br /><br /> In proportion to GDP growth, employment is now rising as fast, if not faster, than before the 2007 debt crisis they say, fueled by an increase in part-time work and the service sector growing. <br /><br /> And that is most pronounced in places like Germany and Spain where reforms have increased flexibility in the labour market.<br /><br /> Those two countries have produced two-thirds of the jobs gained in the last three years.<br /><br /> Economic Bulletin Article: The employment-GDP relationship since the crisis https://t.co/jhZU6hEVHR— ECB (@ecb) September 21, 2016<br /><br /> But even as people are getting back to work quicker than earlier hoped, productivity is declining and the ECB experts believe that could have a negative effect on the eurozone’s long-term economic growth.<br /><br /> “Stronger employment growth has doubtless provided support to household incomes, but has also further weakened aggregate productivity growth, which was already notably weaker – even at the sectoral level – than in the pre-crisis period on both sides of the Atlantic,” the ECB said.<br /><br /> “These common trends in productivity growth may imply risks to the long-term growth outlook,” it added.<br /><br /> Another negative – average hours worked are stagnating, so more people are employed but work less than before the pre-crisis years, a sign of underemployment.<br /><br /> With eurozone unemployment still around 10 percent and youth unemployment above 20 percent – and much higher in some countries – policymakers have been concerned that a large part of a generation may fall out of the labour market permanently.<br /><br /> That would be a costly legacy of the crisis could take decades to resolve, all the while eating into state budgets.<br />
