Brussels, 31/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - In December 2006, the unemployment rate of the euro zone stood at 7.5%, compared to 7.6% in November and 8.4% in December 2005. This figure is the lowest recorded for the countries of the Euro zone since 1993, according to the Commission. In the EU of 25, the unemployment rate also stood at 7.6% last December, unchanged from the previous month and down on the same period in 2005, when it had reached 8.5%. 11.1 million men and women of the euro zone, and 16.6 million in the EU of 25, were without work in December 2006, compared to 12.3 million and 18.6 million respectively in December 2005. If 2 million people found a job last year, the autumn economic forecast of the Commission predicts 4.2 million new jobs in the next two years, including 3.2 million for the euro zone alone.
In December 2006, the lowest rates were recorded in Denmark (3.2%), the Netherlands (3.6%), Estonia (4.3%), Ireland (4.4%) and Austria (4.6%) and the highest in Poland (12.8%), Slovakia (12.0%), Greece (8.7% in the third quarter of 2006), and in Spain and France (8.5% each). Taken annually, 21 Member States registered a drop in their unemployment rate and three an increase. The greatest relative decreases were to be seen in Estonia (from 7.0% to 4.3%), Poland (from 16.9% to 12.8%), Slovakia (from 15.5% 12.0%) and Denmark (from 4.1% to 3.2%), and the only increases were recorded in the United Kingdom (from 5.0% in October 2005 to 5.4% in October 2006), Luxembourg (from 4.6% to 4.8%) and Hungary (from 7.4% to 7.7%). By way of comparison, the unemployment rate of the United States and Japan were 4.5% and 4.1% respectively in the last month of last year. (ab)