Euro area jobless rate reaches highest level since 1998

Euro area jobless rate reaches highest level since 1998

2012-02-01 03:18:18 GMT+7 (ICT)

BRUSSELS (BNO NEWS) -- The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in the 17-nation euro area (EA17) remained stable at 10.4 percent in December 2011, but it marks the highest level in 14 years on an annual basis.

According to the seasonally-adjusted numbers released by the European Union's (EU) statistical office, Eurostat, the jobless rate remained unchanged compared with the previous month of November. But on a year-to-year basis, the month's jobless rate was 0.4 percent higher compared to the 10.0 percent in December 2010.

The year-to-year unemployment rate represents Europe's falling economy, as it marked the highest level since the mid-1998, a few months before the euro was introduced in January 1999.

In the wider 27-nation EU region, the unemployment rate was 9.9 percent in December 2011, also unchanged when compared with November. But as in the euro area, this figure represents a 0.4 percent increase from the figure posted in December 2010.

Eurostat estimated that 23.8 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 persons unemployed increased by 24,000 in the EU27 and by 20,000 in the euro area. Compared with December 2010, unemployment rose by 923,000 and by 751,000 in the EU27 and the euro area, respectively.

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.1 percent), the Netherlands (4.9 percent) and Luxembourg (5.2 percent). The highest rates were seen in Spain (22.9 percent), Greece (19.2 percent in October 2011) and Lithuania (15.3 percent in the third quarter of 2011).

Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in fourteen Member States, remained unchanged in Ireland, and increased in twelve Member States.

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).

Meanwhile, the highest increases were registered in Greece (13.9 percent to 19.2 percent between October 2010 and October 2011), Cyprus (6.1 percent to 9.3 percent) and Spain (20.4 percent to 22.9 percent).

In December 2011, the unemployment rate was 8.5 percent in the United States, which has seen recovering rates during the month of January. In Japan, the jobless rate in November 2011 was 4.5 percent.

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