THE EURO AREA’S unemployment rate has rise to 11.7 per cent in October, up from 11.6 per cent in September.

This compares with the jobless rate in October 2011 that stood at 10.4 per cent.

Since last year, the unemployment rate increased in 16 Member States, fell in nine and remained stable in Austria and  Slovenia.

Spain is ranked as the country with the highest rate of unemployment at 26.2 per cent, Greece came in second place with 25.4 per cent, Portugal was third at 16.3 per cent and Cyprus is fourth with 12.9 per cent of people out of work.

Lowest unemployment

Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.3 per cent), Luxembourg (5.1 per cent), Germany (5.4 per cent) and the Netherlands (5.5 per cent).

The largest decrease in unemployment since last year was observed in Estonia when their unemployment figures fell from 11.5 per cent to 9.6 per cent.

Between October 2011 and October 2012, the unemployment rate for males increased from 10.3 per cent to 11.6 per cent and the female unemployment rate rose from 10.7 per cent to 11.8 per cent in the euro area.

The figures were published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.

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