Euro-zone unemployment down to 8.1 percent

Euro-zone seasonally-adjusted unemployment stood at 8.1 percent in March 2006, compared to 8.2 percent in February, Eurostat, the EU's statistical office, announced here on Wednesday.

A year ago, the unemployment rate in the Euro-zone was 8.8 percent in March 2005, said Eurostat.

For the EU25 as a whole, however, the unemployment rate was 8.4 percent in March 2006, unchanged compared to February. It was 8.9 percent in March 2005.

According to Eurostat, in March 2006, the lowest rates were registered in the Netherlands (4.0 percent), Ireland (4.2 percent), Denmark (4.3 percent), Luxembourg (4.8 percent) and the United Kingdom (5.0 percent in January).

Meanwhile, the unemployment rates were highest in Poland (16.8 percent), Slovakia (15.7 percent), Greece (9.6 percent in the fourth quarter 2005) and France (9.1 percent).

Eurostat estimated that, in March 2006, 11.8 million men and women were unemployed in the euro-zone and 18.2 million in the EU25.

In March 2006, the U.S. unemployment rate was 4.7 percent and the Japanese rate was 4.1 percent.

Source: Xinhua