Unemployed in eurozone hits 17.8 million

BRUSSELS, July 31 (UPI) -- The unemployment rate in the 17-member eurozone was unchanged in June, but the number of people out of work hit a record, Eurostat said Tuesday.

With the jobless rate for May in the eurozone revised from 11.1 percent to 11.2 percent, the rate remained unchanged in June. However, the statistics office for the European Union said 17.8 million people were out of work in the eurozone, a gain of 123,000 from May. It is also a record for the eurozone, which was created in 1999 with the adoption of the euro as a common currency.

The jobless rate in the 27-member EU also was revised higher. The new official figure is 10.3 percent, a 0.1 percentage point gain from the figure published a month earlier.

The data office said 25.11 million men and women were jobless in June in the EU, a gain of 127,000.

The unemployment rate in Austria saw the largest movement in the month, a revised 4.2 percent unemployment rate for May jumped to 4.5 percent in June, a climb that does not move it from its position as the lowest in the EU.

The second-lowest rate in the region is the Netherlands with unemployment at 5.1 percent.

The highest unemployment rate in the EU is in Spain with a rate of 24.8 percent, a gain of 0.1 percentage points.