It jumped four percentage points over 12 months to 17.3% in November. Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate increased in fourteen Member States and fell in fourteen. The highest increases were registered in Cyprus (13.3% to 17.3%), Italy (11.3% to 12.7%), Greece (26.0% to 27.4%) and the Netherlands (5.6% to 6.9%). The largest decreases were observed in Ireland (14.3% to 12.3%), Latvia (14.0% to 12.0%), Lithuania (13.0% to 11.3%), Portugal (17.0% to 15.5%) and Hungary (11.0% to 9.5%).

Among Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.8%), Germany (5.2%) and Luxembourg (6.1%), and the highest in Greece (27.4% in September) and Spain (26.7%). However, unemployment in the eurozone appears to have stabilized as official figures showed the rate in November steady at a record 12.1% for the eighth month running. Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said that 19.24 million people were out of work in the eurozone in November, up 4,000 on the month. Since September's 12.2% rate was revised down, 12.1% is now the record. The figures highlight huge disparities across the then 17-country eurozone. It now counts 18 members following Latvia's adoption of Europe's single currency at the start of the year.

Source: InCyprus