Brussels, 01/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - According to figures published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, on Tuesday 1 October, for the second month in a row, the unemployment rate remained unchanged in the Eurozone and EU as a whole, and stood at 12% and 10.9% respectively in August this year. The rate of youth unemployment for those aged under 25 slightly and almost imperceptibly fell to 23.7% in the euro zone and 23.3% in the EU as a whole. The European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Laszlo Andor explained that this situation, “reminds us that a robust economic recovery is not yet a reality” given these recent figures.
Over the summer period, unemployment remained at a stable level. Just over 26.5 million Europeans are registered unemployed. The only significant variations between July and August occurred in Cyprus and Italy, where there were respective rises of 0.3% and 0.4%. The most significant variations involving falls in youth unemployment in August occurred in Bulgaria (0.6%), Denmark (0.5%), Austria (0.5%), Portugal (0.5%), Slovakia (0.8%) and France (0.3%). The Czech Republic and Sweden, however, experienced rises in youth unemployment rates of 0.4% and 0.5% respectively. (JK/transl.fl)