EU27 Unemployment Down to 7.3%

Euro area (EA13) seasonally-adjusted unemployment stood at 7.2% in March 2007, compared with 7.3% in February. It was 8.2% in March 2006. The EU27 unemployment rate was 7.3% in March 2007, the same as February. It was 8.2% in March 2006.

In March 2007, the lowest rates were registered in Denmark and the Netherlands (both 3.4%) and Ireland (3.9%). Unemployment rates were highest in Poland (11.4%) and Slovakia (10.8%).

These figures come from Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

Twenty three Member States recorded a fall in their unemployment rate over a year and four reported an increase. The largest relative falls were observed in Slovenia (6.4% to 4.6%), Poland (15.0% to 11.4%) and Slovakia (14.2% to 10.8%). The highest relative increases were registered in Romania (6.9% to 7.8%) and Hungary (7.3% to 8.1%).

The unemployment rate for males fell from 7.0% to 6.0% between March 2006 and March 2007 in the euro area and from 7.4% to 6.4% in the EU27. The female unemployment rate declined from 9.6% to 8.7% in the euro area and from 9.1% to 8.3% in the EU27.

In March 2007, the unemployment rate for under-25s was 16.1% in the euro area and 16.6% in the EU27. In March 2006 it was 17.3% and 18.0% respectively. The lowest rates for under-25s were observed in the Netherlands (6.5%), Denmark (6.6%) and Ireland (7.0%); the highest in Greece (25.5% in the fourth quarter 2006), Poland (24.4%), and Romania (23.4%).

Eurostat estimates that 17.0 million men and women in the EU27, of which 10.8 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in March 2007. In March 2006, 19.0 million men and women in the EU27, of which 12.1 million were in the euro area, were unemployed.

In March 2007, the US unemployment rate was 4.4% and the Japanese rate was 4.0%.