EU unemployment at highest in a decade
02 Jun 2009
Unemployment in the 16-countru Euro zone in April rose to its highest in a decade with 14.6 million men and women out of work, according to a report released today by the Eurostat, the EU statistics office. The six countries are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
The seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate in the 16-nation Euro zone rose to 9.2 per cent in April 2009 from 8.9 per cent in March as 396,000 people lost their jobs, bringing the number of people out of work to nearly 14.6 million.
Unemployment across all 27 EU countries rose to 8.6 per cent in April from 8.4 per cent in March. A little over 20.8 million people are now unemployed in the EU, 4.65 million more than April 2008.
Among the member states, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands at 3.0 per cent and Austria with 4.2 per cent, and the highest rate of unemployment was recorded in Spain with 18.1 per cent, Latvia with 17.4 per cent and Lithuania at 16.8 per cent.
Compared with a year ago, the EU statistics office said that two member states recorded a fall in their unemployment rate while twenty-five member states an increase.
The falls were observed in Romania with 6.1 per cent to 5.8 per cent between the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2008 and Greece 7.9 per cent to 7.8 per cent in the same period.
The highest increases were registered in Lithuania with 4.3 per cent to a 16.8 per cent increase, Latvia with 6.1 per cent to 17.4 per cent and Estonia 3.7 per cent to 13.9 per cent.
Between April 2008 and April 2009, the unemployment rate for males rose from 6.6 per cent to 8.9 per cent in the euro area and from 6.3 per cent to 8.6 per cent in the EU27.
The female unemployment rate increased from 8.2 per cent to 9.4 per cent in the euro area and from 7.3 per cent to 8.5 per cent in the EU27.
In April 2009, the youth unemployment rate (under-25) was 18.5 per cent in the euro area and 18.7 per cent in the EU27. In April 2008, it was 14.7 per cent in both zones.
The lowest rate was observed in the Netherlandsat 6.0 per cent, and the highest rates in Spain at 36.2 per cent and Latvia at 29.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2009.
In April 2009, the unemployment rate was 8.9 per cent in the USA while in Japanit was 4.8 per cent in March 2009.