The unemployment rate in the euro zone edged up in August to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent in July, the European Union's statistical office Eurostat said Tuesday.

But the seasonally adjusted figure was much lower than the 8.5 percent jobless rate recorded in August last year.

Since peaking at 8.9 percent during an extended period ending in September 2004, unemployment in the 12-nation euro zone has steadily dropped as the economy gathers pace.

Unemployment stabilized at 7.9 percent from April to June this year before slipping to 7.8 percent in July.

Unemployment varied widely across the euro zone, ranging from 3.8 percent in the Netherlands to 8.8 percent in France. In Germany, the biggest economy in Europe, 8.5 percent of the workforce were unemployed in August.

The unemployment rate for males fell from 7.4 percent to 6.8 percent in the year to August in the euro zone, while the female unemployment rate declined from 9.9 percent to 9.2 percent.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in the 25-nation EU remained unchanged at 8.0 percent in August. It was 8.7 percent a year ago.

The rates in both the euro zone and the EU were still high compared with the United States and Japan, where unemployment stood at 4.7 and 4.2 percent in August respectively.

Eurostat estimates that 11.5 million men and women were unemployed in the euro zone and 17.5 million in the EU as a whole in August.

Source: Xinhua