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November 2008
Euro area unemployment up to 7.8%
EU27 up to 7.2%
Reference:  STAT/09/3    Date:  08/01/2009
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STAT/09/3
8 January 2009

November 2008
Euro area unemployment up to 7.8%
EU27 up to 7.2%

The euro area1 (EA15) seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate2 was 7.8% in November 2008, compared with 7.7% in October3. It was 7.2% in November 2007. The EU271 unemployment rate was 7.2% in November 2008, compared with 7.1% in October3. It was 6.9% in November 2007.

Eurostat estimates that 17.466 million men and women in the EU27, of which 12.180 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in November 2008. Compared with October 2008, the number of persons unemployed increased by 274 000 in the EU27 and by 202 000 in the euro area. Compared with November 2007, unemployment went up by 1 134 000 in the EU27 and by 1 059 000 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 (2.7%), Austria (3.8%) and Cyprus (3.9%), and the highest in Spain (13.4%), Slovakia (9.1%) and Latvia (9.0%).

Compared with a year ago, thirteen Member States recorded a fall in their unemployment rate, and fourteen an increase. The largest falls were observed in Poland (8.5% to 6.5%) and Slovakia (10.5% to 9.1%), and the highest increases in Spain (8.6% to 13.4%) and Estonia (4.1% to 8.3%).

The unemployment rate for males increased from 6.5% to 7.4% between November 2007 and November 2008 in the euro area and from 6.3% to 7.0% in the EU27. The female unemployment rate increased from 8.2% to 8.3% in the euro area and remained stable at 7.5% in the EU27.

In November 2008, the youth unemployment rate (under-25s) was 16.4% in both the euro area and the EU27. In November 2007 it was 14.5% and 14.7% respectively. The lowest rates were observed in the Netherlands (5.4%) and Austria (6.9%), and the highest in Spain (29.4%) and Sweden (23.8%).

In November 2008, the unemployment rate was 6.7% in the USA and 3.9% in Japan.
[ Figures and graphics available in PDF and WORD PROCESSED ]

  1. The euro area (EA15) consisted of 15 Member States up to 31 December 2008: Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia and Finland. From 1 January 2009 the euro area (EA16) also includes Slovakia.

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).

As part of Eurostat's guidelines for the dissemination of data when the EU or euro area is enlarged, the aggregate data series commented on refer to the official composition of the euro area in the most recent month for which data are available. Thus News Releases with data for months up to December 2008 will comment on EA15 series, while Releases with data for January 2009 onwards will comment on EA16 series.

  1. 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 all countries 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 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.

  1. The October 2008 unemployment rates for the euro area and the EU27 published in News Release 167/2008 of 28 November 2008 remain unchanged. Among Member States, the rate has been revised by more than 0.1 percentage points for Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Larger revisions (of more than 0.4 percentage points) have been registered for Bulgaria, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria and Slovakia. The revisions are primarily caused by the inclusion of the most recent EU Labour Force Survey data in the calculation process.

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 November 2008.
For the Netherlands up to and including September-October-November 2008 (3-month rolling average).
For the United Kingdom up to and including August-September-October 2008 (3-month rolling average).

For Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia up to and including 2008Q3.

  1. 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.
  2. Greece, Italy and Romania: quarterly data for all series.

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

Issued by:
Eurostat Press Office

Tim ALLEN

Tel: +352-4301-33 444
For further information on data:

Hubertus VREESWIJK

Tel: +352-4301-34 323

Remko HIJMAN

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

[ Figures and graphics available in PDF and WORD PROCESSED ]

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED UNEMPLOYMENT RATES (%)

TOTALS
Nov 2007
May 2008
Jun 2008
Jul 2008
Aug 2008
Sept 2008
Oct 2008
Nov 2008
EA15
7.2
7.4
7.4
7.4
7.5
7.6
7.7
7.8
EU27
6.9
6.9
6.9
6.9
7.0
7.0
7.1
7.2
EA16
7.3
7.4
7.5
7.5
7.5
7.6
7.7
7.8
BE
7.1
6.9
7.0
7.2
7.2
7.2
7.0
7.0
BG
6.0
5.9
5.6
5.5
5.3
5.2
5.1
5.1
CZ
4.8
4.5
4.4
4.4
4.3
4.3
4.4
4.5
DK
3.3
3.2
3.2
3.2
3.3
3.5
3.8
4.1
DE
8.0
7.4
7.4
7.3
7.2
7.2
7.1
7.1
EE
4.1
4.4
4.8
5.7
6.4
7.0
7.7
8.3
IE
4.7
5.6
6.0
6.3
6.5
6.9
7.4
7.9
EL5
8.0
7.5
7.5
7.5
7.5
7.5
:
:
ES
8.6
10.6
10.9
11.3
11.6
12.1
12.8
13.4
FR
7.8
7.7
7.7
7.7
7.7
7.8
7.8
7.9
IT5
6.4
6.8
6.8
6.7
6.7
6.7
:
:
CY
3.8
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.7
3.8
3.9
3.9
LV
5.4
6.1
6.3
6.9
7.3
7.7
8.2
9.0
LT
4.2
4.8
5.2
5.9
6.3
6.2
6.3
7.0
LU
4.1
4.3
4.4
4.4
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.6
HU
7.7
7.7
7.8
7.8
7.9
7.9
8.0
8.3
MT
6.2
5.9
5.9
5.8
5.8
5.6
5.7
5.8
NL
2.9
2.8
2.7
2.7
2.7
2.7
2.7
2.7
AT
4.0
3.7
3.6
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.8
3.8
PL
8.5
7.4
7.2
6.9
6.8
6.6
6.5
6.5
PT
7.7
7.7
7.7
7.8
7.8
7.8
7.8
7.8
RO5
6.2
5.7
5.7
5.8
5.8
5.8
:
:
SI
4.6
4.6
4.5
4.4
4.3
4.2
4.3
4.3
SK
10.5
10.0
9.8
9.4
9.2
9.0
9.0
9.1
FI
6.6
6.3
6.4
6.4
6.4
6.4
6.4
6.4
SE4
5.9
5.8
5.8
5.9
6.2
6.4
6.7
7.0
UK
5.0
5.4
5.5
5.7
5.8
5.9
:
:
NO
2.5
2.5
2.6
2.4
2.4
2.6
2.7
:
US
4.7
5.5
5.5
5.7
6.1
6.1
6.5
6.7
JP
3.8
4.0
4.1
4.0
4.2
4.0
3.7
3.9

: Data not available Source: Eurostat

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED UNEMPLOYMENT RATES (%)
Youth (under 25's)
Males
Females
Nov-07
Sept-08
Oct-08
Nov-08
Nov-07
Sept-08
Oct-08
Nov-08
Nov-07
Sept-08
Oct-08
Nov-08
EA15
14.5
15.7
16.1
16.4
6.5
7.1
7.2
7.4
8.2
8.2
8.2
8.3
EU27
14.7
15.8
16.1
16.4
6.3
6.7
6.9
7.0
7.5
7.4
7.5
7.5
BE
18.0
19.2
18.1
17.9
6.4
6.9
6.7
6.7
8.0
7.6
7.5
7.4
BG
14.6
11.1
11.2
11.3
5.6
5.2
5.1
5.0
6.5
5.2
5.2
5.2
CZ
9.0
9.8
10.2
10.8
3.8
3.4
3.5
3.6
6.2
5.5
5.6
5.7
DK
7.0
8.9
9.9
10.7
3.0
3.1
3.5
3.9
3.7
3.9
4.2
4.4
DE
10.7
9.5
9.5
9.6
8.1
7.3
7.3
7.3
7.9
7.0
7.0
6.9
EE5
7.7
15.5
:
:
4.5
7.6
8.2
9.0
3.8
6.5
7.1
7.5
IE
9.4
15.1
16.7
17.7
5.3
8.1
8.8
9.4
4.0
5.3
5.6
5.8
EL5
21.8
21.9
:
:
5.1
5.0
:
:
12.1
11.2
:
:
ES
18.6
26.6
28.3
29.4
6.8
11.2
12.1
13.0
10.9
13.3
13.8
14.1
FR
18.1
19.8
20.2
20.7
7.3
7.3
7.5
7.6
8.5
8.2
8.2
8.3
IT5
21.7
20.6
:
:
5.1
5.4
:
:
8.2
8.4
:
:
CY5
9.8
9.6
:
:
3.3
3.2
3.3
3.4
4.4
4.6
4.5
4.4
LV5
8.5
12.2
:
:
5.4
8.0
8.7
10.1
5.5
7.4
7.6
7.9
LT5
7.4
15.0
:
:
4.5
6.2
6.5
7.8
3.9
6.1
6.2
6.3
LU
15.5
16.2
16.8
16.8
3.2
3.4
3.6
3.6
5.2
5.8
5.8
5.8
HU
19.3
20.5
20.7
21.5
7.4
7.9
8.0
8.2
8.1
7.9
8.0
8.3
MT
12.7
11.3
11.7
12.1
5.6
5.6
5.7
5.8
7.3
5.8
5.8
5.9
NL
5.5
5.3
5.5
5.4
2.6
2.6
2.7
2.7
3.3
2.8
2.8
2.7
AT
7.8
7.5
7.1
6.9
3.6
3.6
3.5
3.5
4.5
4.1
4.1
4.1
PL
18.7
16.5
16.7
16.9
7.9
5.8
5.8
5.7
9.2
7.5
7.4
7.3
PT
16.2
16.9
16.6
16.9
6.2
6.7
6.7
6.9
9.5
9.0
9.0
8.9
RO5
18.8
18.9
:
:
7.1
6.7
:
:
5.1
4.8
:
:
SI5
11.4
10.3
:
:
3.8
4.1
4.1
4.2
5.5
4.4
4.6
4.4
SK
19.5
19.8
20.1
20.4
9.1
8.0
8.1
8.3
12.2
10.3
10.1
10.1
FI
16.2
16.8
16.7
16.6
6.3
6.3
6.3
6.2
6.9
6.6
6.6
6.6
SE4
19.0
21.2
22.6
23.8
5.6
6.1
6.4
6.7
6.3
6.8
7.1
7.3
UK
13.7
15.5
:
:
5.3
6.4
:
:
4.7
5.2
:
:
NO
6.7
7.6
8.1
:
2.5
2.6
2.8
:
2.4
2.5
2.7
:
US
10.7
13.2
13.7
13.8
4.7
6.7
7.1
7.2
4.6
5.5
5.8
6.0
JP
:
:
:
:
3.8
4.1
3.9
4.0
3.7
3.9
3.5
3.8

: Data not available Source: Eurostat

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED (in millions)
Nov 2007
May 2008
Jun 2008
Jul 2008
Aug 2008
Sept 2008
Oct 2008
Nov 2008
EA15
11.121
11.436
11.505
11.538
11.614
11.758
11.978
12.180
EU27
16.332
16.511
16.587
16.659
16.764
16.936
17.192
17.466

[ Figures and graphics available in PDF and WORD PROCESSED ]