Eurozone unemployment rate stable at 7.5% in September; Netherlands at 2.5% and Denmark at 2.9%; Spain rises to 11.9%; Ireland climbs to 6.6%

The Eurozone¹ (EA15) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate² stood at 7.5% in September 2008, stable compared with August³. It was 7.3% in September 2007. The EU27¹ unemployment rate was 7.0% in September 2008, compared with 6.9% in August³. It was 7.0% in September 2007.

Eurostat estimates that 16.710 million men and women in the EU27, of which 11.691 million were in the Eurozone, were unemployed in September 2008. Compared with August 2008, the number of persons unemployed increased by 32 000 in the EU27 and by 52 000 in the Eurozone. Compared with September 2007, unemployment went up by 132 000 in the EU27 and by 507 000 in the Eurozone.

These figures are published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union.

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (2.5%) and Denmark (2.9%), and the highest in Spain (11.9%) and Slovakia (10.0%).

Compared with a year ago, seventeen Member States recorded a fall in their unemployment rate, nine an increase and one remained stable.The largest falls were observed in Poland (9.0% to 6.5%) and Austria (4.5% to 3.2%), and the highest increases in Spain (8.3% to 11.9%) and Ireland (4.6% to 6.6%).

The unemployment rate for males increased from 6.5% to 6.9% between September 2007 and September 2008 in the Eurozone and from 6.4% to 6.6% in the EU27. The female unemployment rate remained stable at 8.2% in the Eurozone and declined from 7.6% to 7.4% in the EU27.

In September 2008, the youth unemployment rate (under-25s) was 15.3% in both the Eurozone and the EU27. In September 2007 it was 14.5% and 15.0% respectively. The lowest rates were observed in the Netherlands (5.3%) and Austria (6.0%), and the highest in Spain (25.9%) and Greece (21.4% in the second quarter 2008).

The unemployment rate was 6.1% in the USA in September 2008 and 4.2% in Japan in August 2008.

1. The Eurozone (EA15) consists of Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Finland.

The EU27 includes Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK).

1. Eurostat produces harmonised unemployment rates for individual EU Member States, the Eurozone and the EU. These unemployment rates are based on the definition recommended by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The measurement is based on a harmonised source, the European Union Labour Force Survey (LFS).

Based on the ILO definition, Eurostat defines unemployed persons as persons aged 15 to 74 who:

- are without work;

- are available to start work within the next two weeks;

- and have actively sought employment at some time during the previous four weeks.

The unemployment rate is the number of people unemployed as a percentage of the labour force. The labour force is the total number of people employed and unemployed.

The numbers of unemployed and the monthly unemployment rates are estimates based on results of the LFS which is a continuous household survey carried out in all countries on the basis of agreed definitions. These results are interpolated/extrapolated to monthly data using national survey data and/or national monthly series on registered unemployment. The most recent figures are therefore provisional; results from the Labour Force Survey are available
90 days after the end of the reference period for most Member States.

Monthly unemployment and employment series are calculated first at the level of four categories for each Member State (males and females 15-24 years, males and females 25-74 years). These series are then seasonally adjusted and all the national and European aggregates are calculated.

Member States may publish other rates such as register based unemployment rates, or rates based on national Labour Force Surveys or corresponding surveys. These rates may vary from those published by Eurostat due to different definition or methodological choices.

Current deviations from the definition of unemployment in the EU Labour Force Survey:

Spain, Italy, and United Kingdom: Unemployment is restricted to persons aged 16-74. In Spain and Italy the legal age limit for working is 16.

Netherlands: Persons without a job, who are available for work and looking for a job are only included in unemployment if they express that they would like to work.

1. The unemployment rates for the Eurozone and the EU27 for August 2008 in News Release 136/2008 of 1 October 2008 remain unchanged. As a regular update of the calculation process, the most recent EU Labour Force Survey data have been included for several Member States, which caused a revision in the monthly unemployment rates of more than 0.1 percentage points for Spain.

The following LFS data are used in the calculations of the monthly unemployment rates published in this News Release:
For Germany, Finland and Sweden up to and including September 2008.
For the Netherlands up to and including July-August-September 2008 (3-month rolling average).
For the United Kingdom up to and including June-July-August 2008 (3-month rolling average).

For Spain up to and including 2008Q3.

For Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia up to and including 2008Q2.

1. Provisional data: the Swedish Labour Force Survey was amended in April 2005 to take further account of the EU harmonised methodology. This break in the series may affect the reliability of the seasonal adjustment.

2. Greece, Italy and Romania: quarterly data for all series.

Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia: quarterly data for youth unemployment.

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED UNEMPLOYMENT RATES (%)

TOTALS

: Data not available Source: Eurostat