World Business

Eurozone unemployment rate remains high in March

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-01 11:28

BRUSSELS: Unemployment in the eurozone remained at a 12-year high in March, European Union (EU) statistics office Eurostat said Friday.

Seasonally adjusted unemployment in the 16-nation eurozone stood at 10 percent, the highest level since August 1998 and much higher than the 9.1 percent a year ago.

In the 27-nation EU, the unemployment rate was unchanged compared to that in February, at 9.6 percent. It was the highest level since records started in January 2000. In March 2009, the rate was 8.5 percent.

Among EU member states whose data were available, the Netherlands recorded the lowest unemployment of 4.1 percent. The highest rate was in Latvia, with 22.3 percent. Spain had a staggering unemployment rate of 19.1 percent, the worst in the eurozone. Unemployment in Germany, the largest economy in the EU, deceased slightly to 7.3 percent.

Eurostat estimated that 23.130 million people in the EU, including 15.808 million in the eurozone, were jobless in March. Compared with February, unemployment went up by 123,000 in the EU and by 101,000 in the eurozone.

It is feared rising unemployment will weigh heavily on the growth potential of the European economy, and make the recovery harder.