Eurostat: Eurozone unemployment rate at 11.7%

The eurozone seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 11.7% in April 2014, down from 11.8% in March 2014, and from 12.0% in April 2013. The EU-28 unemployment rate was 10.4% in April 2014, down from 10.5% in March 2014, and from 10.9% in April 2013. These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Eurostat estimates that 25.471 million men and women in the EU-28, of whom 18.751 million were in the eurozone, were unemployed in April 2014. Compared with March 2014, the number of persons unemployed decreased by 151 000 in the EU-28 and by 76,000 in the eurozone. Compared with April 2013, unemployment fell by 1.167 million in the EU-28 and by 487,000 in the eurozone.

Member states

Among the member states, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.9%), Germany (5.2%) and Luxembourg (6.1%), and the highest in Greece (26.5% in February 2014) and Spain (25.1%).

Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in eighteen member states, remained stable in two and increased in eight. The largest decreases were registered in Hungary (10.6% to 7.8% between March 2013 and March 2014), Portugal (17.3% to 14.6%) and Ireland (13.7% to 11.9%), and the highest increases in Cyprus (15.6% to 16.4%) and the Netherlands (6.5% to 7.2%).

In April 2014, the unemployment rate in the United States was 6.3%, down from 6.7% in March 2014, and from 7.5% in April 2013.

Youth unemployment

In April 2014, 5.259 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU-28, of whom 3.381 million were in the eurozone. Compared with April 2013, youth unemployment decreased by 415 000 in the EU28 and by 202 000 in the eurozone. In April 2014, the youth unemployment rate was 22.5% in the EU28 and 23.5% in the eurozone, compared with 23.6% and 23.9% respectively in April 2013. In April 2014, the lowest rates were observed in Germany (7.9%), Austria (9.5%) and the Netherlands (11.0%), and the highest in Greece (56.9% in February 2014), Spain (53.5%) and Croatia (49.0% in the first quarter of 2014).

1. The eurozone includes Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The EU-28 includes Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Croatia (HR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK).

The tables also include Iceland, Norway and the United States. Non-seasonally adjusted and trend data can be found in the statistical database on the Eurostat website. For further details please refer to the Unemployment statistics article in Statistics Explained. Eurostat produces harmonized unemployment rates for individual EU member states, the eurozone and the EU. These unemployment rates are based on the definition recommended by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The measurement is based on a harmonised source, the European Union Labour Force Survey (LFS).

Based on the ILO definition, Eurostat defines unemployed persons as persons aged 15 to 74 who:

- Are without work;

- are available to start work within the next two weeks, and;

- have actively sought employment at some time during the previous four weeks.

The unemployment rate is the number of people unemployed as a percentage of the labour force. The labour force is the total number of people employed plus unemployed. In this news release unemployment rates are based on employment and unemployment data covering persons aged 15 to 74. The data in this News Release are normally subject to small revisions, caused by the updates to the seasonally adjusted series whenever new monthly data are added. Larger revisions can occur when the most recent LFS data are included in the calculation process. Compared with the rates published in News Release 70/2014 of 2 May 2014, the March 2014 unemployment rates for the EA18 and the EU28 are unchanged. Among member states, rates have been revised between 0.2 and 0.4 percentage points for Ireland, Poland and Portugal. The revision for Portugal also reflects the inclusion of the latest Census results in the weighting of the LFS. The rates have been revised downwards by 0.5 percentage points for Cyprus and upwards by 1.1 percentage points for Lithuania. The youth unemployment rate is the number of people aged 15 to 24 unemployed as a percentage of the labour force of the same age. Therefore, the youth unemployment rate should not be interpreted as the share of jobless people in the overall youthpopulation. For further details please refer to the Youth unemployment article in Statistics Explained. For Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Iceland the trend component is used instead of the more volatile seasonally adjusted data. For Denmark, Estonia, Hungary and the United Kingdom 3-month moving averages of LFS data are used instead of pure monthly indicators.

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