EU unemployment rate slightly drops to 9.9 percent

EU unemployment rate slightly drops to 9.9 percent

2011-03-02 08:48:53 GMT+7 (ICT)

BRUSSELS (BNO NEWS) -- The European Union (EU) on Tuesday said that the 17-country euro area's unemployment rate was 9.9 percent for the month of January, representing a .1 percent decrease compared to the previous month and the same period during the previous year.

The report was issued by the EU's statistical office, Eurostat, which also announced that the EU region's January unemployment rate remained unchanged compared to the previous year at 9.5 percent, but decreased compared with December's 9.6 percent.

In addition, Eurostat estimated that over 23 million men and women in the EU, of whom 15.77 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in January.

Compared with December 2010, the number of persons unemployed fell by 43,000 in the EU and by 72,000 in the euro area. Compared with January 2010, unemployment rose by 99,000 in the EU and remained nearly stable in the euro area.

The report also showed that among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands and Austria (both 4.3 percent) and Luxembourg (4.7 percent), and the highest in Spain (20.4 percent), Latvia (18.3 percent in the third quarter of 2010) and Lithuania (17.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010).

Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in eleven Member States, remained stable in two and increased in fourteen.

The largest falls were observed in Estonia (16.1 percent to 14.3 percent between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010), Malta (7.2 percent to 6.1 percent) and Sweden (8.9 percent to 7.9 percent).

The highest increases were registered in Greece (9.7 percent to 12.9 percent between the third quarters of 2009 and 2010), Hungary (11.0 percent to 12.6 percent) and Lithuania (15.9 percent to 17.4 percent between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010).

In January, Europe's figures were similar to the U.S.' 9 percent unemployment rate, but much higher than Japan's last report of a 4.9 unemployment rate for last December.

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