Unemployment in the 19-nation eurozone fell to 8.1 percent in August, its lowest level since November 2008 and the aftermath of the global financial crash, Eurostat said Monday.

The official agency's figure was slightly better than the 8.2 percent predicted by the analysts surveyed by financial services firm Factset, and will be taken as an encouraging sign for the bloc. Eurostat estimates that 16.66 million working age Europeans are out of work in the 28-member European Union and 13.22 million in the 19 core economies of the single currency eurozone.

Unemployment has been falling in the eurozone since it hit a peak of 12.1 percent between April and June 2013, at the height of the debt crisis.