Luxembourg, 04/10/2001 (Agence Europe) - According to figures published by Eurostat on Tuesday, eurozone unemployment was unchanged, at 8.3%, in August 2001 compared with July (it was 8.7% in August 2000). In the whole of the EU (EU15), unemployment reached 7.6% in August 2001, unchanged on the July 2001 figure. It was 8.1% in August 2000.
In August 2001, the lowest unemployment rates were registered in the Netherlands (2.2% in July), Luxembourg (2.5%), Ireland (3.8%), Austria (3.9%), Denmark (4.3%) and Portugal (4.4%). Spain's 13.0% remained the EU's highest rate. In the last twelve months, the most important relative falls were recorded in the Netherlands (from 2.9% in July 2000 to 2.2% in July 2001), Sweden (from 5.8% to 4.7%), Italy (from 10.4% in July 2000 to 9.4% in July 2001) and France (from 9.3% to 8.5%). On the other hand, Austria, Portugal and Germany recorded a slight increase in their unemployment rates over the past year. In August 2001, the unemployment rate of the under-25s was 16.3% in the eurozone and 14.9% in EU15. This compares with 16.9% and 16.0% respectively a year earlier. In August 2001, it ranged from less than 6% in the Netherlands (in July) and Austria to over 25% in Spain and Italy (in July). The US unemployment rate rose to 4.9% and the Japanese rate stood at 5.0% in August 2001.