EU unemployment

Eurozone unemployment hits record high of 11.4%

Business Insider,

1 October, 2012

Just out from Eurostat.

Unemployment has hit a record high of 11.4%.

Note that technically this is the same as last month, but that's only because last month's 11.3% reading was revised higher.

The report is below the dotted line.

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Euro area unemployment rate at

11.4%

EU27 at 10.5%

The euro area1 (EA17) seasonally-adjusted2 unemployment rate3 was 11.4% in August 2012, stable compared with July4. The EU271 unemployment rate was 10.5% in August 2012, also stable compared with July4. In both zones, rates have risen compared with August 2011, when they were 10.2% and 9.7% respectively.

Eurostat estimates that 25.466 million men and women in the EU27, of whom 18.196 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in August 2012. Compared with July 2012, the number of persons unemployed increased by 49 000 in the EU27 and by 34 000 in the euro area. Compared with August 2011, unemployment rose by 2.170 million in the EU27 and by 2.144 million in the euro area.

These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.5%), Luxembourg (5.2%), the Netherlands (5.3%) and Germany (5.5%), and the highest in Spain (25.1%) and Greece (24.4% in June 2012).

Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate increased in twenty Member States, fell in six and remained stable in the United Kingdom. The largest falls were observed in Estonia (13.2% to 10.1% between the second quarters of 2011 and 2012), Lithuania (15.0% to 12.9%) and Latvia (17.0% to 15.9% between the second quarters of 2011 and 2012). The highest increases were registered in Greece (17.2% to 24.4% between June 2011 and June 2012), Cyprus (8.0% to 11.7%), Portugal (12.7% to 15.9%) and Spain (22.0% to 25.1%).