© AMS
05. 07. 10. - 16:00
Austria clocks up biggest drop in unemployment
Austria recorded the biggest drop in unemployment numbers last month according to new figures.
The eurozone seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 10% in May 2010, unchanged from April. It was 9.4% in May 2009. In the EU27, the jobless rate was 9.6% in May 2010, also unchanged from April (8.9% in May 2009), Eurostat reported.
The statistics office estimates that 23.127 million men and women were unemployed in May 2010 in the EU27, of whom 15,789 million were in the eurozone.
Compared with a year ago, five member states recorded a fall in the unemployment rate and 22 an increase. The largest declines were in Austria (from 4.9% to 4%) and Germany (from 7.6% to 7%).
The largest increases were in Estonia (from 11% to 19% between the first quarters of 2009 and 2010) and Latvia (from 13.5% to 20% between the first quarters of 2009 and 2010).
Between May 2009 and May 2010, the unemployment rate for men rose from 9.2% to 9.9% in the eurozone and from 8.9% to 9.7% in the EU27. The jobless rate for women expanded from 9.5% to 10.2% in the eurozone and from 8.8% to 9.5% in the EU27.
In May 2010, the unemployment rate among the under-25s was 19.9% in the eurozone and 20.5% in the EU27. In May 2009, it stood at 19.4% and 19.5%, respectively. The lowest rate was registered in the Netherlands (8.1%) and the highest in Spain (40.5%), Estonia (39.8% in first quarter 2010) and Latvia (39.7% in first quarter 2010).