UNEMPLOYMENT : JOBLESS RATE VARIES WIDELY ACROSS EUROPE'S REGIONS.

Regional unemployment rates varied widely across the EU in 2007, from 2.1% in the region of Zeeland in the Netherlands to 25.2% in Reunion, a French Overseas Department, according to a report published by Eurostat, on 16 February.

Of the 263 NUTS 2 regions(1) of the EU for which data are available, 28 had an unemployment rate of 3.5% or less in 2007, half the average for the EU. They included eight regions in the Netherlands, seven in Italy, five in the United Kingdom, three each in the...