Luxembourg, 01/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - The rate of unemployment in the euro zone stood at 8.8% in January 2001, against 8.7% and 9.5% in December and January 2000, respectively, states Eurostat in a communiqué. As for the unemployment rate in the EU15, it was 8% in January, stable in relation to last December, and down on January 2000 (8.8%). The lowest rates were registered in Luxembourg 92.1% in December 2000), the Netherlands (2.8% in December 2000), Austria (3.7%) and Ireland (3.8%), the rate of unemployment in Spain, however, remaining the highest in the EU (13.7%). In January 2001, the unemployment rate for the under-25s stood at 17.2% for the euro zone and 16% for the Union as a whole, against 18 and 17%, respectively, a year earlier; in January 2001, it varied from less than 6% in Austria to over 25% in Spain. Over the last twelve months, the most important relative falls in the rate of unemployment in the population of working age were recorded in Sweden (6.5% to 5.4%), Ireland (4.8% to 3.8%) and France (10.3% to 8.7%). Eurostat states that unemployment stood at 4.2% in the United States and 4.9% in Japan in December 2000.