Euro area unemployment rate at 9.9% EU27 at 9.4%

STAT/11/76

April 2011

Euro area unemployment rate at 9.9%
EU27 at 9.4%

The euro area1 (EA17) seasonally-adjusted2 unemployment rate3 was 9.9% in April 2011, unchanged compared with March4. It was 10.2% in April 2010. The EU271 unemployment rate was 9.4% in April, compared with 9.5% in March4. It was 9.7% in April 2010.

Eurostat estimates that 22.547 million men and women in the EU27, of whom 15.529 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in April 2011. Compared with March 2011, the number of persons unemployed fell by 165 000 in the EU27 and by 115 000 in the euro area. Compared with April 20105, unemployment decreased by 702 000 in the EU27 and by 457 000 in the euro area.

These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in the Netherlands and Austria (both 4.2%) and Luxembourg (4.5%), and the highest in Spain (20.7%), Lithuania (17.3% in the fourth quarter of 2010) and Latvia (17.2% in the fourth quarter of 2010).

Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in seventeen Member States, increased in nine and remained stable in Luxembourg. The largest falls were observed in Estonia (18.8% to 13.8% between the first quarters of 2010 and 2011), Latvia (20.1% to 17.2 % between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010) and Sweden (9.1% to 7.4%). The highest increases were registered in Greece (10.2% to 14.1% between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010), Lithuania (15.8% to 17.3% between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010), Bulgaria (10.0% to 11.4%) and Ireland (13.3% to 14.7%).

Between April 2010 and April 2011, the unemployment rate for males fell from 10.0% to 9.6% in the euro area and from 9.8% to 9.3% in the EU27. The female unemployment rate decreased from 10.3% to 10.2% in the euro area and from 9.6% to 9.5% in the EU27.

In April 2011, the youth unemployment rate (under-25s) was 19.6% in the euro area and 20.3% in the EU27. In April 2010 it was 21.1% and 21.2% respectively. The lowest rates were observed in the Netherlands (6.9%), Germany (7.9%) and Austria (8.7%), and the highest in Spain (44.4%), Greece (36.1% in the fourth quarter of 2010), Slovakia (35.6%) and Lithuania (34.1% in the fourth quarter of 2010).

In April 2011, the unemployment rate was 9.0% in the USA. In March 2011, it was 4.6% in Japan.

• The euro area (EA17) consists of Belgium, Germany, Estonia, 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).

• Non-seasonally adjusted and trend data can be found in the statistical database on the Eurostat website.

• 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).

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.

The numbers of unemployed and the monthly unemployment rates are estimates 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 minimum age for working is 16. Employment data used for Italy includes also those above 74.

• Compared with the rates published in News Release 62/2011 of 29 April 2011, the March 2011 unemployment rates remain unchanged for the EA17 and the EU27. Among Member States, the rate has been revised by between 0.2 to 0.4 percentage points for Denmark (Feb 2011), Estonia (Q4 2010), Luxembourg and Finland. For Poland, the rate has been revised downwards by 0.5 percentage points. 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. For the revisions to the data for Portugal see footnote 5.

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

For Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Finland and Sweden monthly data up to and including April 2011.

For the United Kingdom monthly data up to and including January - February - March 2011 (3-month rolling average).

For Denmark, Estonia, Spain and Portugal quarterly data up to and including Q1 2011.

For Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Greece, France, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia quarterly data up to and including Q4 2010.

• The data collection mode of the Portuguese LFS has been changed beginning with the first quarter of 2011. This has led to a break in the monthly unemployment series in January 2011, which means that Portuguese data for January 2011 onwards have a limited comparability with those for December 2010 and earlier. For further details, see the Press Release from the Portuguese statistical office. Nevertheless, for the calculation of the EU and euro area aggregates, the available data for Portugal have been used.

• Italy has implemented a method to produce monthly unemployment data purely based on the LFS. For the moment, these data should be considered provisional.

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

Cyprus and Slovenia: quarterly data for youth unemployment.

• For Germany, Austria and Finland the trend component is used instead of the more volatile seasonally adjusted data.

• Due to the aftermath of the earthquake in Japan, the monthly unemployment figures from March 2011 onwards exclude the three most affected prefectures.

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 Q4 2010 : Data not available Source: Eurostat

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED (in millions)