Member States
Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Germany and Austria (both 4.9%), and the highest in Greece (27.2% in May 2014) and Spain (24.5%).
Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate fell in twenty-two Member States, increased in three and remained stable in three. The largest decreases were registered in Hungary (10.4% to 8.1% between June 2013 and June 2014), Portugal (16.3% to 14.0%), Croatia (18.1% to 16.2%), Spain (26.2% to 24.5%) and Ireland (13.1% to 11.5%). The only increases were registered in Finland (8.1% to 8.7%), Italy (12.1% to 12.6%) and Luxembourg (5.9% to 6.3%).
In July 2014, the unemployment rate in the United States was 6.2%, up from 6.1% in June 2014, but down from 7.3% in July 2013.
Youth unemployment
In July 2014, 5.062 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU28, of whom 3.327 million were in the euro area. Compared with July 2013, youth unemployment decreased by 563 000 in the EU28 and by 226 000 in the euro area. In July 2014, the youth unemployment rate5 was 21.7% in the EU28 and 23.2% in the euro area, compared with 23.6% and 24.0% respectively in July 2013. This is the lowest rate for the EU28 since September 2011 and for the euro area since June 2012. In July 2014, the lowest rates were observed in Germany (7.8%), Austria (9.3%) and the Netherlands (10.4%), and the highest in Spain (53.8%), Greece (53.1% in May 2014), Italy (42.9%) and Croatia (41.5% in the second quarter 2014).
