These figures are published by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities.
Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were registered in the Netherlands (2.6%) and Denmark (3.1% in February), and the highest in Slovakia (9.8%) and Spain (9.3%).
Over the last year, twenty-three Member States recorded a fall in their unemployment rate and four an increase. The largest falls were observed in Poland (10.3% to 7.7%), Bulgaria (7.5% to 5.9%) and Slovakia (11.3% to 9.8%), and the highest increases in Spain (8.1% to 9.3%) and Ireland (4.6% to 5.6%).
The unemployment rate for males fell from 6.7% to 6.3% between March 2007 and March 2008 in the euro area and from 6.7% to 6.2% in the EU27. The female unemployment rate declined from 8.6% to 8.0% in the euro area and from 8.1% to 7.3% in the EU27.
In March 2008, the youth unemployment rate (under-25s) was 14.5% in the euro area and 14.6% in the EU27. In March 2007 it was 14.9% and 15.7% respectively. The lowest rates were observed in the Netherlands (5.0%) and Denmark (6.8% in February), and the highest in Greece and Italy (both 21.8% in the fourth quarter 2007).