UNEMPLOYMENT : EU JOBLESS RATE HITS TEN-YEAR HIGH.

• Position: Brief article

In the euro area, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 10% on December 2009, compared with 9.9% in November and 8.2% in December 2008. In the EU, the rate was 9.6% in December 2009, compared with 9.5% in November and 7.6% in December 2008, Eurostat reported on 29 January. This is the highest rate of joblessness in the euro area since August 1998 and in the EU since the start of the Eurostat statistical series in January 2000.

Eurostat estimates that 23.012 million men and women were without work in December 2009 in the EU27, of whom 15.763 million are in the euro area.

Among the member states, the lowest unemployment rates were in the Netherlands (4%) and Austria (5.4%) and the highest in Latvia (22.8%) and Spain (19.5%).

Between December...