Amongst the Member States for which data are available, twenty recorded a fall in their unemployment rate over a year, one remained stable and five reported an increase. The largest relative falls were observed in Estonia (6.5% to 4.2%), Slovakia (14.5% to 11.0%), Slovenia (6.6% to 5.0%), Denmark (4.1% in December 2005 to 3.2% in December 2006) and Latvia (7.6% to 6.1%). The highest relative increases were registered in Hungary (7.3% to 7.9%), the United Kingdom (5.1% in November 2005 to 5.4% in November 2006) and Romania (7.1% to 7.5%).
The unemployment rate for males fell from 7.0% to 6.3% between January 2006 and January 2007 in the euro area and from 7.4% to 6.7% in the EU27. The female unemployment rate declined from 9.8% to 8.9% in the euro area and from 9.3% to 8.5% in the EU27.
In January 2007, the unemployment rate for under-25s was 16.1% in the euro area and 16.8% in the EU27. In January 2006 it was 17.3% and 18.0% respectively. The lowest rates for under-25s were observed in Denmark (6.7% in December 2006), the Netherlands (6.8%), Austria (8.9%) and Ireland (9.4%); the highest in Poland (26.2%), Greece (24.7% in the third quarter of 2006), Slovakia (24.6%), and Romania (23.4%).
Eurostat estimates that 17.5 million men and women in the EU27, of which 11.1 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in January 2007. In January 2006, 19.2 million men and women in the EU27, of which 12.3 million were in the euro area, were unemployed.
The US unemployment rate was 4.6% in January 2007, and the Japanese rate was 4.1% in December 2006.
