The seasonally adjusted number of persons employed in the euro area (EA13) rose by 0.4% (533 000 persons) during the first quarter of 2007, according to provisional national accounts estimates published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.

During the same period, the number of persons employed in the EU27 grew by 0.3% (612 000 persons). In the fourth quarter of 2006, growth rates were +0.3% in the euro area and +0.2% in the EU27.

Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, employment grew by 1.4% in the euro area and by 1.2% in the EU27 in the first quarter of 2007, after +1.5% and +1.4% respectively in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Eurostat estimates that, in the first quarter of 2007, 220.4 million men and women were employed in the EU27, of which 141.6 million were in the euro area. These figures are seasonally adjusted.