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 Czech Republic and Austria and two regions in Belgium. At the other extreme, 14 regions had a rate of 14.2% or higher, double that of the EU: five regions in Germany, four in France (all of the Overseas Departments), two each in Spain and Slovakia and one region in Belgium.

At regional level, the female unemployment rate was lowest in 2007 in Zeeland (2.4%) in the Netherlands, Prague (2.8%) in the Czech Republic, Cheshire (2.9%) in the United Kingdom and Utrecht (2.9%) in the Netherlands. The female unemployment rate was highest in the Spanish regions of Ceuta (28.7%) and Melilla (28.1%). The female unemployment rate was higher than the male rate in three quarters of the 254 regions for which data are available.

Regional...