Brussels, 07/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - In the euro area, the unemployment rate reached its highest level at 10.1% in November 2010, Eurostat announced on 7 January. It was 9.9% in November 2009. The EU27 unemployment rate was 9.6% in November 2010, compared to 9.4% in November 2009 and unchanged from October 2010.
According to Eurostat estimates, 23,248 million men and women were unemployed in the EU27 in November 2010, with 15,924 million of these in the euro area. Compared with November 2009, unemployment rose by 606,000 in the EU27 and by 347,000 in the euro area.
Among the member states, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (4.4%), Luxembourg (4.8%) and Austria (5.1%), and the highest in Spain (20.6%), Lithuania (18.3% in the third quarter of 2010) and Latvia (18.2% in the third quarter of 2010).
Compared with a year previously, the unemployment rate fell in six member states. The largest falls were observed in Finland (8.8% to 7.9%), Sweden (8.7% to 7.8%), Germany (7.5% to 6.7%) and Malta (7.1% to 6.3%). The highest increases were registered in Lithuania (14.3% to 18.3% between the third quarters of 2009 and 2010), Greece (9.7% to 12.9% between the third quarters of 2009 and 2010) and Bulgaria (8.3% to 10.2%). (Com-G.B./transl.rt)