The euro area unemployment rate rose to its maximum again in October 2012. Average percentage of unemployed in 17 countries with common currency was 11.7%, up from 11.6% in September 2012. Compared to 2011 numbers, unemployment grew by 1.3 percentage points. In the EU27, unemployment rate was 10.7% in October 2012, compared to 10.6% in September 2012 and 9.9% in October 2011.

As usual, the lowest unemployment rates were observed in Austria (4.3%), Luxembourg (5.1%), Germany (5.4%) and the Netherlands (5.5%), and the highest in Spain (26.2%) and Greece (25.4% in August 2012).

In August 2012, youth unemployment reached a new peak. It was 23.9% in the euro area and 23.4% in the EU27. The lowest rates were measured in Germany (8.1%), Austria (8.5%) and the Netherlands (9.8%) and and the highest in Greece (57% in August 2012) and Spain (55.9%).

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