Sat, Feb 11 2012

Unemployment in EU highest in more than five years

Thu, Oct 01 2009 12:47 CET

byClive Leviev-Sawyer

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Unemployment in EU highest in more than five years

A job seeker at a National Agency for Employment office in Nice, south eastern France.

Euro zone seasonally-adjusted unemployment was 9.6 per cent in August 2009, compared with 9.5 per cent in July, while in the 27-member European Union, unemployment was 9.1 per cent that month, according to the bloc’s statistical office Eurostat.

Eurostat said on October 1 2009 that for the euro area, unemployment in August was at its highest since March 1999 and for the EU, since March 2004.

About 21.872 million men and women in the EU, of which 15.165 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in August 2009.

Compared with July, the number of unemployed increased by 236 000 in the EU and by 165 000 in the euro area.

Compared with August 2008, unemployment went up by 5.008 million in the EU and by 3.224 million in the euro area.

Among EU member states, the lowest unemployment was the Netherlands (3.5 per cent) and Austria (4.7 per cent), and the highest in Spain (18.9 per cent) and Latvia (18.3 per cent).

Compared with a year ago, all EU member states recorded an increase in their unemployment rates.

The smallest increases were in Belgium (7.5 per cent to 7.9 per cent) and Germany (7.2 per cent to 7.7 per cent).

The highest increases were in Latvia (7.4 per cent to 18.3 per cent) and Estonia (4.1 per cent to 13.3 per cent between the second quarters of 2008 and 2009).

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