The Eurozone (EA16)
seasonally-adjusted unemployment
rate was 10.1% in August 2010,
unchanged compared with July. It
was 9.7% in August 2009. The EU27 unemployment rate was 9.6% in August 2010, also unchanged
compared with July. The rate was 9.2% in
August 2009. Austria was lowest at 4.3%; Ireland's rate was at 13.9% and Spain's
at 20.5%.
Eurostat estimates that 23.06m men and women in the
EU27, of
whom 15.879m were in the Eurozone, were unemployed in August 2010. Compared with
July, the number of persons unemployed decreased by 68,000 in the EU27 and by 20
000 in the Eurozone.
Compared with August 2009, unemployment rose by 0.894m in the EU27 and by 0.569m in the
Eurozone.
These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistics office of the
European Union.
Among the member states, the lowest unemployment rates were
recorded in Austria (4.3%) and the
Netherlands (4.5%), and the highest in Spain (20.5%),
Latvia
(19.5% in the second quarter of 2010), Estonia (18.6% in the second quarter of 2010) and
Lithuania
(18.2% in the second quarter of 2010).
The Irish rate was 13.9%.
Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in seven
member states, remained stable in one and increased in nineteen. The largest
falls were observed in Malta (7.2% to 6.2%), Austria (5.2% to 4.3%) and Germany (7.6% to
6.8%). The highest increases were registered in Estonia (13.5% to
18.6% between the second quarters of 2009 and 2010), Lithuania (13.5%
to 18.2% between the second quarters of 2009 and 2010) and Bulgaria
(7.0% to
10.1%).
Between August 2009 and August 2010, the unemployment rate
for males rose from 9.5% to 9.9% in the Eurozone and
from 9.3% to 9.6% in the EU27.
The female unemployment rate increased from 9.9% to 10.3% in the Eurozone and
from 9.1% to 9.6% in the EU27.
In August 2010, the youth unemployment rate (under-25s) was
19.8% in the Eurozone and 20.2% in the EU27.
In both the Eurozone and the EU27 the rate fell for the second consecutive month. In August
2009 it was 20.1% and 20.4% respectively. The lowest rates were observed in
Austria
(8.5%), Germany and the Netherlands
(both 8.8%), and the highest rates in Spain (41.6%),
Lithuania
(37.6% in the second quarter of 2010) and Estonia (37.2% in
the second quarter of 2010).
In the US,
the unemployment rate was 9.6% in August 2010. In Japan it was 5.2%
in July 2010.
The Eurozone (EA16) consists of Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain,
France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal,
Slovenia, Slovakia 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).
