Brussels, 01/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - The euro area unemployment rate remained stable at 11.9% in February 2014. The EU28 unemployment rate was 10.6% in February 2014, down from 10.7% in January 2014. These are the most recent figures published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, on Tuesday 1 April.
Fluctuations in the unemployment rates between January and February were very slight, or even non-existent (in eleven member states it barely moved more than one decimal point). Only three member states stood out in this category with increases of 0.2%: Cyprus (16.7%), the Netherlands (7.3%) and Lithuania (11.5%). In the EU as a whole 25.920 million men and women were unemployed in February 2014, of whom 18.965 million were in the euro area. This statistical deadlock, however, hides a constant although very low decrease in the number of Europeans unemployed. Between February 2013 (12%) and February 2014 (11.9%) there were 619,000 fewer people unemployed in the EU and 166,000 fewer in the Eurozone. (JK)