The seasonally adjusted number of persons employed in the euro area (EA13) rose by 0.3% (407 000 persons) during the third 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 also by 0.3% (668 000 persons). In the second quarter of 2007, growth rates were +0.6% in the euro area and +0.5% in the EU27.

Compared with the same quarter of the previous year, employment grew by 1.9% in the euro area and by 1.7% in the EU27 in the third quarter of 2007, after +1.8% and +1.6% respectively in the second quarter of 2007.

Eurostat estimates that, in the third quarter of 2007, 223.0 million men and women were employed in the EU27, of which 143.6 million were in the euro area. These figures are seasonally adjusted.