Europe's unemployment rate rises to 10.1 percent

[News_Editor]

Europe's unemployment rate rises to 10.1 percent

2010-12-01 00:12:22 GMT+7 (ICT)

BRUSSELS (BNO NEW) — The euro area's unemployment rate for the month of October was 10.1 percent, up .1 percent, compared to last month's rate, and .2 percent, compared to last year's rate, a European Union (EU) report released on Tuesday said.

According to the EU's statistical office Eurostat, the EU27 unemployment rate was 9.6 percent in October, unchanged compared with September, but it shows a .2 percent increase, compared to October 2009.

Eurostat estimates that 23.151 million men and women in the EU27, of whom 15.947 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in October, which represents an increase of 84,000 in the EU27 and by 80, 000 in the euro area. Compared with last year's numbers, unemployment rose by 590,000 in the EU27 and by 402,000 in the euro area.

The report also showed that among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (4.4 percent), Austria (4.8 percent) and Luxembourg (5.0 percent), and the highest in Spain (20.7 percent), Latvia (19.4 percent in the second quarter) and Lithuania (18.4 percent in the third quarter).

Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in eight Member States and increased in nineteen. The largest falls were observed in Germany (7.5 percent to 6.7 percent), Malta (6.9 percent to 6.2 percent), Sweden (8.8 percent to 8.1 percent) and Finland (8.7 percent to 8.0 percent).

Furthermore, the highest increases were registered in Lithuania (14.4 percent to 18.4 percent between the third quarters of 2009 and 2010), Greece (9.2 percent to 12.2 percent between the second quarters of 2009 and 2010) and Latvia (16.5 percent to 19.4 percent between the second quarters of 2009 and 2010).

According to Eurostat, women have been more affected by unemployment in the past year. Between October 2009 and October 2010, the unemployment rate for males rose from 9.8 percent to 9.9 percent in the euro area and from 9.5 percent to 9.6 percent in the EU27, while the female unemployment rate increased from 9.9 percent to 10.3 percent in the euro area and from 9.2 percent to 9.6 percent in the EU27.

In addition, the unemployment rate for people under 25 years old was 20.1 percent in the euro area and 20.4 percent in the EU27, and increase of .1 and .2 percent, respectively.

The lowest rates were observed in Germany and the Netherlands (both 8.5 percent) and Austria (9.8 percent), and the highest rates in Spain (43.2 percent), Lithuania (35.3 percent in the third quarter) and Latvia (34.0 percent in the second quarter).

Europe's numbers are higher than those compared to strong world economies like the U.S. and Japan. In the U.S., the unemployment rate was 9.6 percent in October, and in Japan it was 5.0 percent in September.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-12-01