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 4.3%) and Luxembourg (4.7%), and the highest in Spain (20.4%), Latvia (18.3% in the third quarter of 2010) and Lithuania (17.4% in the fourth quarter of 2010).
Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in eleven Member States, remained stable in two and increased in fourteen. The largest falls were observed in Estonia (16.1% to 14.3% between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010), Malta (7.2% to 6.1%) and Sweden (8.9% to 7.9%). The highest increases were registered in Greece (9.7% to 12.9% between the third quarters of 2009 and 2010), Hungary (11.0% to 12.6%) and Lithuania (15.9% to 17.4% between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010).
Between January 2010 and January 2011, the unemployment rate for males fell from 9.9% to 9.8% in the euro area and from 9.7% to 9.6% in the EU27. The female unemployment rate increased from 10.0% to 10.1% in the euro area and from 9.3% to 9.5% in the EU27.
In January 2011, the youth unemployment rate (under-25s) was 19.9% in the euro area and 20.6% in the EU27. In January 2010 it was 20.2% and 20.7% respectively. The lowest rates were observed in the Netherlands (7.8%), Austria (8.0%) and Germany (8.3%), and the highest in Spain (43.1%), Slovakia (37.7%) and Lithuania (34.4% in the fourth quarter of 2010).
In January 2011, the unemployment rate was 9.0% in the USA. In December 2010 it was 4.9% in Japan.
