Luxembourg, 03/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - According to the statistics published by the European Statistical Office, Eurostat, on 3 January, the unemployment rate in the EU as a whole fell to 8.1% in November 2000 from 8.2% in October. In November a year earlier it was 8.9%. In the Euro-zone, the seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate was unchanged at 8.8% in November 2000 compared to October 2000. In November 1999, the rate was 9.6%.
The main thrust of the Eurostat statistics is that 11.5 million men and women were unemployed in the Euro-zone and 14 million in the EU15 in November 2000 (seasonally-adjusted unemployment figures in line with ILO criteria). Moreover:
In the EU15: a) in November 2000, the lowest rates were registered in Luxembourg (2.1%) and in Austria (3.2%); with the highest in Finland (9.6%) and Spain (13.6%): b) in the last twelve months, the most important relative falls were registered in Ireland (from 5.2% to 4.1%), France (10.7% to 8.9%) and Sweden (from 6.8% to 5.6%);
In November 2000, the unemployment rate of the under-25s was 16.9% in the Euro-zone and 16.0% in the EU15 (compared with 18.2% and 17.1% respectively in November 1999). It ranged from 4.4% in Austria, 5.1% in the Netherlands, 5.6% in Ireland and 5.7% in Luxembourg, to 25% in Spain and 31.9% in Italy (in July 2000);
In the United States, unemployment stood at 4.0% and 4.7% in Japan in November 2000.