Euro area unemployment rate stable at 10.3 percent

[News_Editor]

Euro area unemployment rate stable at 10.3 percent

2012-01-07 21:18:27 GMT+7 (ICT)

BRUSSELS (BNO NEWS) -- The unemployment rate in the 17-nation euro area remained unchanged at 10.3 percent in November 2011, according to the latest figures released by the European Union (EU) on Friday.

The seasonally-adjusted rate was unchanged compared to October 2011, but it increased 0.3 percent compared to the same month in the previous year. The unemployment rate for the euro area stood at 10 percent in November 2010.

Meanwhile, the wider European Union which consists of 27 nations had an unemployment rate of 9.8 percent in November 2011. This figure is also unchanged compared to October, but is about 0.2 percent higher compared to the 9.6 percent in November 2010.

The figures were released by the EU's statistical office Eurostat, which estimated that 23.7 million men and women in the EU27, of whom 16.372 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in November 2011.

The number of people unemployed increased by 55,000 in the EU27 and by 45,000 in the euro area compared to October 2011, but this did not affect the unemployment rate. On a year-to-year basis, unemployment rose by 723,000 and 587,000 in the EU27 and in the euro area respectively, compared with November 2010.

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria, where the rate stood at 4.0 percent, and Luxembourg and the Netherlands where 4.9 percent is unemployed. The highest rates were in Spain (22.9 percent), Greece (18.8 percent in September 2011), and Lithuania (15.3 percent in the third quarter of 2011).

The figures released by Eurostat also revealed that, compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in fourteen Member States and rose in thirteen.

The largest falls were observed in Estonia (16.1 percent to 11.3 percent between the third quarters of 2010 and 2011), Latvia (18.2 percent to 14.8 percent between the third quarters of 2010 and 2011) and Lithuania (18.3 percent to 15.3 percent between the third quarters of 2010 and 2011).

The highest increases were registered in Greece (13.3 percent to 18.8 percent between September 2010 and September 2011), Cyprus (6.0 percent to 9.1 percent), and Spain (20.4 percent to 22.9 percent).

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