Member States
Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.9%), Germany (5.1%) and Luxembourg (6.1%), and the highest in Greece (26.7% in January 2014) and Spain (25.3%).
Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate increased in ten Member States, remained stable in three and fell in fifteen. The highest increases were registered in Cyprus (14.8% to 17.4%), the Netherlands (6.4% to 7.2%), Italy (12.0% to 12.7%) and Croatia (16.6% to 17.3%), and the largest decreases in Hungary (11.2% to 7.9% between February 2013 and February 2014), Latvia (13.9% to 11.6% between the fourth quarters of 2012 and 2013), Portugal (17.4% to 15.2%) and Ireland(13.7% to 11.8%).
In March 2014, the unemployment rate in the United States was 6.7%, stable compared with February 2014, but down from 7.5% in March 2013.
Youth unemployment
In March 2014, 5.340 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU28, of whom 3.426 million were in the euro area. Compared with March 2013, youth unemployment decreased by 322 000 in the EU28 and by 166 000 in the euro area. In March 2014, the youth unemployment rate was 22.8% in the EU28 and 23.7% in the euro area, compared with 23.5% and 24.0% respectively in March 2013. In March 2014, the lowest rates were observed in Germany (7.8%), Austria (9.5%) and the Netherlands (11.3%), and the highest in Greece (56.8% in January 2014), Spain (53.9%) and Croatia (49.0% in the first quarter of 2014).
