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Eurozone unemployment rate hits new 14-year record

02 April 2012 12:58 (UTC +04:00)

Across the 27-member European Union, unemployment in November and December 2011 was 9.9%. EU unemployment was 9.5% in December 2010. Eurostat estimates that 23.816 million men and women in the EU27, of whom 16.469 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in December 2011. Compared with November 2011, the number of jobless increased by 24,000 in the EU27 and by 20,000 in the euro area. Compared with December 2010, unemployment rose by 923,000 in the EU27 and by 751,000 in the euro area.

Among EU member states, unemployment was lowest in Austria (4.1%), the Netherlands (4.9%) and Luxembourg (5.2%), and the highest in Spain (22.9%), Greece (19.2% in October 2011) and Lithuania (15.3% in the third quarter of 2011). The largest falls were observed in Estonia (16.1% to 11.3% between the third quarters of 2010 and 2011), Latvia (18.2% to 14.8% between the third quarters of 2010 and 2011) and Lithuania (18.3% to 15.3% between the third quarters of 2010 and 2011). The highest increases were registered in Greece (13.9% to 19.2% between October 2010 and October 2011), Cyprus (6.1% to 9.3%) and Spain (20.4% to 22.9%).