STAT/10/125

31 August 2010

July 2010
Euro area unemployment rate stable at 10.0%
EU27 stable at 9.6%

The euro area1 (EA16) seasonally-adjusted2 unemployment rate3 was 10.0% in July 2010, unchanged compared with June4. It was 9.6% in July 2009. The EU271 unemployment rate was 9.6% in July 2010, unchanged compared with June4. It was 9.1% in July 2009.

Eurostat estimates that 23.057 million men and women in the EU27, of whom 15.833 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in July 2010. Compared with June, the number of persons unemployed decreased by
45 000 in the EU27 and by 8 000 in the euro area. Compared with July 2009, unemployment rose by 1.108 million in the EU27 and by 0.668 million in the euro area.

These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (3.8%) and the Netherlands (4.4% in June 2010), and the highest rates in Spain (20.3%), Latvia (20.1% in the first quarter of 2010) and Estonia (18.6% in the second quarter of 2010).

Compared with a year ago, three Member States recorded a fall in the unemployment rate, two remained stable and twenty-two showed an increase. The falls were observed in Austria (5.1% to 3.8%), Malta (7.3% to 6.5%) and Germany (7.6% to 6.9%). The highest increases were registered in Latvia (13.5% to 20.1% between the first quarters of 2009 and 2010) and Lithuania (11.2% to 17.3% between the first quarters of 2009 and 2010).

Between July 2009 and July 2010, the unemployment rate for males rose from 9.5% to 9.8% in the euro area and from 9.2% to 9.6% in the EU27. The female unemployment rate increased from 9.8% to 10.3% in the euro area and from 9.0% to 9.6% in the EU27.

In July 2010, the youth unemployment rate (under-25s) was 19.6% in the euro area and 20.2% in the EU27. In July 2009 it was 19.8% and 20.1% respectively. The lowest rate was observed in the Netherlands (8.1% in June 2010), and the highest rates in Spain (41.5%), Latvia (39.5% in the first quarter of 2010) and Estonia (37.2% in the second quarter of 2010).

In July 2010, the unemployment rate was 9.5% in the USA and 5.2% in Japan.

• The euro area (EA16) consists of Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia and Finland.

The EU27 includes Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), the Czech Republic (CZ), Denmark (DK), Germany (DE), Estonia (EE), Ireland (IE), Greece (EL), Spain (ES), France (FR), Italy (IT), Cyprus (CY), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Hungary (HU), Malta (MT), the Netherlands (NL), Austria (AT), Poland (PL), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Slovenia (SI), Slovakia (SK), Finland (FI), Sweden (SE) and the United Kingdom (UK).

• Non-seasonally adjusted and trend data can be found in the statistical database on the Eurostat website.

• Eurostat produces harmonised unemployment rates for individual EU Member States, the euro area and the EU. These unemployment rates are based on the definition recommended by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The measurement is based on a harmonised source, the European Union Labour Force Survey (LFS).

Based on the ILO definition, Eurostat defines unemployed persons as persons aged 15 to 74 who:

- are without work;

- are available to start work within the next two weeks;

- and have actively sought employment at some time during the previous four weeks.

The unemployment rate is the number of people unemployed as a percentage of the labour force. The labour force is the total number of people employed plus unemployed.

The numbers of unemployed and the monthly unemployment rates are estimates based on results of the LFS which is a continuous household survey carried out in Member States on the basis of agreed definitions. These results are interpolated/extrapolated to monthly data using national survey data and/or national monthly series on registered unemployment. The most recent figures are therefore provisional; results from the Labour Force Survey are available 90 days after the end of the reference period for most Member States.

Monthly unemployment and employment series are calculated first at the level of four categories for each Member State (males and females 15-24 years, males and females 25-74 years). These series are then seasonally adjusted and all the national and European aggregates are calculated.

Member States may publish other rates such as register based unemployment rates, or rates based on national Labour Force Surveys or corresponding surveys. These rates may vary from those published by Eurostat due to a different definition or methodological choices.

Current deviations from the definition of unemployment in the EU Labour Force Survey:

Spain, Italy and United Kingdom: Unemployment is restricted to persons aged 16-74. In Spain and Italy the legal minimum age for working is 16. Employment data used for Italy includes also those above 74.

• Compared with the rates published in News Release 113/2010 of 30 July 2010, the June 2010 unemployment rates for the EA16 and the EU27 remain unchanged. Among Member States, the rate has been revised between 0.2 and 0.4 percentage points for Belgium, Spain and Portugal. A larger revision was observed for Denmark (+0.7 pp.). The revisions are primarily caused by the inclusion of the most recent EU Labour Force Survey data in the calculation process and updates to the seasonally adjusted series.

The following LFS data are used in the calculations of the monthly unemployment rates published in this News Release:

For Germany, Italy, Finland and Sweden up to and including July 2010.

For the Netherlands and the United Kingdom up to and including April-May-June 2010 (3-month rolling average).

For Denmark, Estonia and Spain up to and including 2010Q2.

For Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Greece, France, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Hungary, Malta, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia up to and including 2010Q1.

• Italy recently implemented a method to produce monthly unemployment data purely based on the LFS. For the moment, these data should be considered provisional.

• Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania: quarterly data for all series.

Cyprus and Slovenia: quarterly data for youth unemployment.

• For Finland the trend component is used instead of the more volatile seasonally adjusted data.

Selected Principal European Economic Indicators: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/euroindicators

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED UNEMPLOYMENT RATES (%)

TOTALS

: Data not available Source: Eurostat

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED UNEMPLOYMENT RATES (%)

* Data for 2010Q1 : Data not available Source: Eurostat

SEASONALLY ADJUSTED NUMBER OF UNEMPLOYED (in millions)