Brussels, 02/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - Unemployment in the euro zone remained unchanged compared to September's 8.9% rate and unchanged compared to the same period in 2003. It was also 8.9% in the EU25, a fall of 0.1% compared to September and August (9%) and by 0.2% compared to October 2003 (9.1%). Data recently made available by 23 Member States showed that: ten of them experienced a rise in the annual rate of unemployment, in twelve of them it fell and in one it remained stable. Relative increases involved the Netherlands, from 3.9% in September 2003 to 4.7% in September 2004, Luxembourg (from 3.9% to 4.3%), but these countries still have some of the lowest rates in the EU. The sharpest falls occurred in Lithuania (from 12.2% to 10.1%), Estonia (10.1% to 8.5%) and Malta (from 8% to 7%).