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.
