July 2009 Euro area unemployment up to 9.5% EU27 up to 9.0%

STAT/09/1

1 September 2009

Ju ly 2009

Euro area unemployment up to 9.5%

EU27 up to 9.0%

The euro area 1 (EA16) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate 2 was 9.5% in July 2009, compared with 9.4% in June 3 . It was 7.5% in July 2008. The EU27 1 unemployment rate was 9.0% in July 2009, compared with 8.9% in June 3 . It was 7.0% in July 2008. For the euro area this is the highest rate since May 1999 and for the EU27 since May 2005.

Eurostat estimates that 21.794 million men and women in the EU27 , of which 15.090 million were in the euro area , were unemployed in July 2009. Compared with June, the number of persons unemployed increased by 225 000 in the EU27 and by 167 000 in the euro area . Compared with July 2008, unemployment went up by 5.111 million in the EU27 and by 3.264 million in the euro area .

These figures are published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities .

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands (3.4%), Austria (4.4%) and Cyprus (5.5%), and the highest rates in Spain (18.5%), Latvia (17.4%) and Lithuania (16.7%).

Compared with a year ago, all Member States recorded an increase in their unemployment rate. The smallest increases were observed in Romania (5.7% to 6.2% between the first quarters of 2008 and 2009) and Germany (7.2% to 7.7%). The highest increases were registered in Lithuania (5.8% to 16.7%), Latvia (6.9% to 17.4%) and Estonia (4.1% to 13.3% between the second quarters of 2008 and 2009).

B etween July 2008 and July 2009, the unemployment rate for males rose from 6.9% to 9.3% in the euro area and from 6.6% to 9.1% in the EU27 . The female unemployment rate increased from 8.3% to 9.8% in the euro area and from 7.4% to 9.0% in the EU27 .

In July 2009, the youth unemployment rate (under-25s) was 19.7% in the euro area and 19.8% in the EU27 . In July 2008 it was 15.4% in both areas. The lowest rate was observed in the Netherlands (6.6%), and the highest rates in Spain (38.4%) and Lithuania (30.9% in the second quarter of 2009).

In July 2009, t he unemployment rate was 9.4% in the USA and 5.7% in Japan .

• The euro area (EA1 6) consists of Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The EU27 includes Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), 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).

• Eurostat produces harmonised unemployment rates for individual EU Member States, the euro area 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).

B ased 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.

The numbers of unemployed and the monthly unemployment rates are es timates based on results of the LFS which is a continuous household survey carried out in Member States on the basis of agreed definitions. These results are interpolated/extrapolated to monthly data using national survey data and/or national monthly series on registered unemployment. The most recent figures are therefore provisional; results from the Labour Force Survey are available 90 days after the end of the reference period for most Member States.

Monthly unemployment and employment series are calculated first at the level of four categories for each Member State (males and females 15-24 years, males and females 25-74 years). These series are then seasonally adjusted and all the national and European aggregates are calculated.

Member States may publish other rates such as register based unemployment rates, or rates based on national Labour Force Surveys or corresponding surveys. These rates may vary from those published by Eurostat due to a different definition or methodological choices.

Current deviations from the definition of unemployment in the EU Labour Force Survey:

Spain, Italy, and United Kingdom: Unemployment is restricted to persons aged 16-74. In Spain and Italy the legal age limit for working is 16.

Netherlands : Persons without a job, who are available for work and looking for a job are only included in unemployment if they express that they would like to work.

• The June 2009 unemployment rates published in News Release 112/2009 of 31 July 2009 for the euro area and the EU27 have not been revised. Among Member States, the rate has been revised by between 0.2 and 0.4 percentage points for France, Lithuania and Luxembourg. The revisions are primarily caused by the inclusion of the most recent EU Labour Force Survey data in the calculation process and updates to the seasonally adjusted series . There is also a large downward revision for Estonia, see footnote 4.

The following LFS data are used in the calculations of the monthly unemployment rates published in this News Release:

For Germany, Finland and Sweden up to and including July 2009.

For the Netherlands up to and including May-June-July 2009 (3-month rolling average).

For the United Kingdom up to and including April-May-June 2009 (3-month rolling average).

For Denmark, Estonia, Spain and Portugal up to and including 2009Q2.

For Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Austria, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia up to and including 2009Q1.

• Due to recent large revisions of provisional monthly data for Estonia, only quarterly data will be published for this Member State until further notice.

• Estonia, Greece, Italy and Romania: quarterly data for all series.

Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovenia: quarterly data for youth unemployment.

• Provisional data: the Swedish Labour Force Survey was amended in April 2005 to take further account of the EU harmonised methodology. This break in the series may affect the reliability of the seasonal adjustment .

Selected Principal European Economic Indicators : http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/euroindicators

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED UNEMPLOYMENT RATES (%)

TOTALS

: Data not available Source: Eurostat

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED UNEMPLOYMENT RATES (%)

*Data for Q1 2009 : Data not available Source: Eurostat

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED (in millions)