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 (4.2%), Austria (4.3%) 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 sixteen Member States, increased in ten and remained stable in Poland. The largest falls were observed in Latvia (20.1% to 17.2% between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010), Estonia (16.1% to 14.3% between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010) and Germany (7.4% to 6.3%). The highest increases were registered in Greece (10.2% to 14.1% between the fourth quarters of 2009 and 2010), Bulgaria (9.7% to 11.4%) and Ireland (13.1% to 14.7%).
Between March 2010 and March 2011, the unemployment rate for males fell from 9.9% to 9.6% in the euro area and from 9.8% to 9.4% in the EU27. The female unemployment rate decreased from 10.3% to 10.2% in the euro area, but increased from 9.5% to 9.6% in the EU27.
In March 2011, the youth unemployment rate (under-25s) was 19.8% in the euro area and 20.7% in the EU27. In March 2010 it was 20.9% and 21.1% respectively. The lowest rates were observed in the Netherlands (6.9%), Germany (8.2%) and Austria (9.4%), and the highest in Spain (44.6%), Greece (36.1% in the fourth quarter of 2010), Slovakia (35.2%) and Lithuania (34.2% in the fourth quarter of 2010).
In March 2011, the unemployment rate was 8.8% in the USA. In February 2011, it was 4.6% in Japan.
