Thus, unemployment in many euro-area countries is falling; in 2016 the unemployment rate for the euro area as a whole declined by almost 1 percentage point to 9.6%. That means it is now just a little less than 1 percentage point above its average in the pre-crisis years.
Further research to explore these questions and their possible connection to disparities in lending to members of minority groups would be highly worthwhile. In fact, the Federal Reserve’s upcoming Community Affairs Research Conference will feature several papers that explore these issues.