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 (3.7%), the Netherlands (4.4%) and Luxembourg (4.9%), and the highest in Spain (21.2%), Greece (16.7% in the second quarter of 2011) and Latvia (16.2% in the second quarter of 2011).
Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in sixteen Member States, increased in ten and remained stable in Romania. The largest falls were observed in Estonia (17.9% to 12.8% between the second quarters of 2010 and 2011), Latvia (19.4% to 16.2% between the second quarters of 2010 and 2011) and Lithuania (18.2% to 15.6% between the second quarters of 2010 and 2011). The highest increases were registered in Greece (12.1% to 16.7% between the second quarters of 2010 and 2011), Bulgaria (10.2% to 11.7%) and Cyprus (6.2% to 7.2%).
Between August 2010 and August 2011, the unemployment rate for males fell from 10.0% to 9.6% in the euro area and from 9.6% to 9.3% in the EU27. The female unemployment rate decreased from 10.4% to 10.3% in the euro area and remained stable at 9.7% in the EU27.
In August 2011, 5.139 million young persons (under-25s) were unemployed in the EU27, of which 3.129 million were in the euro area. Compared with August 2010, youth unemployment decreased by 107 000 in the EU27 and by 110 000 in the euro area. In August 2011, the youth unemployment rate was 20.9% in the EU27 and 20.4% in the euro area. In August 2010 it was 20.8% and 20.9% respectively. The lowest rates were observed in the Netherlands (7.5%), Austria (7.9%) and Germany (8.9%), and the highest in Spain (46.2%), Greece (42.9% in the second quarter of 2011) and Lithuania (33.2% in the second quarter of 2011).
In August 2011, the unemployment rate was 9.1% in the USA. In July 2011, it was 4.7% in Japan.
